Mother's Day

I had a perfect day. 

 I slept in till nearly 10 am. 

 It was pure BLISS. 

I got breakfast in bed.

 I love my husband 

and 

I love my kids.  

I felt completely taken care of and loved.

 

I love that Will finally gave up 

and looked away right when 

Jack decided

 to

 stop 

being 

a

 nutter-butter.

Being a family is never boring!

I am the luckiest.

Will Baby's Birth Story

I think seven months is enough time to have let pass that I can think about the experience and not hurt while not enough time for it to be hazy.

We went through a lot to bring William into our family.  I'll admit when I hold him in my arms I don't think about all it took, I just feel grateful.

I went into labor Sunday, October 2 at about noon.  Dani, Sean and Maddie came over about 4 for dinner.  I made dinner in between contractions, and then despite being the complete opposite of hungry, ate dinner at the urging of my sister who reminded me it might be a while before I would get the chance to eat again.  Zack drove me to the hospital about 6pm and I was admitted.  When I got to the hospital they asked if I wanted an epidural.  I told them absolutely but that I'd wait a while.  I was only at a 3 and remembering what I felt like to be in labor with Jack, I didn't think it hurt enough to warrant an epidural yet.  So I waited.

When I was about a 5 I decided it was time.  I still wasn't in as much pain and I remember having been, but I didn't want to end up like all those stories of women who waited too long to get their epidurals and couldn't get them in the end.  So the anesthesiologist came in and administered the epidural.  With Jack the relief of pain was so great that I would have thrown Zack overboard for my anesthesiologist, but this time no matter how high they turned the meds up I still felt each and every single contraction in the left side of my body.  The right side was totally numb, but the left side felt it all.  They gave me some morphine which made me feel totally drugged, but did nothing for the pain.  I waited another hour or so because I really didn't enjoy the epidural process, but by that time I really was in pain and not able to sleep at all between each left sided contraction.  So I asked for another one.  This one was worse.  For the first time ever I truly understood Annee's fear of needles.  I was practically hyperventilating and shaking while he was inserting the needle and was on the verge of throwing up.  It was horrendous.  And then it was over.  The first epidural took care of the right side and the second epidural took care of the left side.  I was finally able to get some sleep.  I won't go so far as saying if we ever have another child that I would opt out of the epidural, but I definitely wont ever be so callous to women who say their epidurals weren't sent from heaven above. 

It was a long night, and they left me alone for a while.  For some reason all of the equipment in my room kept running out of paper, or batteries or anything else they could run out of, resulting in things beeping incessantly throughout the night.  When they finally came to check on me after a few hours they realized that Will had had his first mecomium and I was covered in it.  This meant that although I was ready to push, I had to wait until the Level 1 nursing staff was available in case they had to incubate the baby.  I think after all the meds, I was numb.  I remember thinking how so much had gone wrong in conceiving, carrying and now delivering this baby.  They warned me to not be alarmed if they baby didn't cry because his lungs might be full of mecomium.  I don't even know why they would think I could possibly be anything but alarmed if he didn't cry.  Once the nursing staff arrived, a few pushes and all 9 pounds of William was born.  The nurses quickly scooped him up and started suctioning him.  I think it was 30 seconds before I heard a cry.  He was icky all over, but perfect.  Blue eyed, blonde haired baby.  How it is possible that I get two of these choice angels here on earth?

My mom brought Jack to the hospital a few hours later after he got out of school.  He brought my a present, and a birthday cake for William (he was more then willing to help William blow out the candle.  That's what big brothers are for right?).

He kept asking if he could stay at the hospital with us.  I think it was only the 2nd night he'd ever been away from us, so it was huge in his life and in ours.  I cried that night.  Not out of sadness or happiness either.   Just because I didn't know how I could possibly survive loving two children as much as I did.  Loving Jack had felt so full and complete, and now, adding a second child, somehow it felt like my heart was puckering at the seams.  All of my heart belonged to Jack.   All of my heart belonged to Will.  All of my heart will forever belong to Zack.  I think I cried that night as I grew an extra heart.

Months have past now.  I'm sitting here as Will naps upstairs and Jack is at school.  There have been moments with our new family of four of pure bliss where I have never felt closer to heaven.  There have been moments of pure chaos where Zack is lucky I didn't drive both kids to his work, drop them off and drive away.  There have been countless moments that held a little bit of each in them.  I had 6 years of parenting just one child.  Of being able to be there 200% for him each and every day.   It is taking time to figure out how to balance being there in the way that I need to for both of these little boys.  Jack is forgiving, and patient.  William is forgiving and patient (most of the time).  I just have to learn to be forgiving and patient with myself and to strive each day to be more deserving of these two miracles we're raising.

Zackrison Sisters Update

It's my turn to host the update again.  Enjoy!

Sarah:

Last weeks:
-moved Huck out of the nursery - he had started sleeping in June's room a couple months ago but all his clothes and stuff was still in his old room. This required sorting through all of June's clothes too and cleaning out the closet.) Now we can call it Huck & June's room and his old room can be called the new baby's room.
-lost my ankles. My swelling is worse with this pregnancy than I remember ever before.
-lots of rooftop concert planning. Finally secured our funding for the season which is a nice relief. But we're a little in scramble mode now.
-made good progress on my work project, but still need one last push to get it handed off before my leave
-got June's dental work done - 3 cavities filled and a silver crown. Went ahead and put her to sleep for this one
-opened a couple new band accounts for the various business endeavors we have going. That will really simplify reconciliation and record keeping to have them separated.


Next week:
-rooftop concert on Friday! So far the weather's looking great. My hope is to teach others how to do all the jobs I do so next month I can have a baby.
-dr appt on monday. I don't love my midwives (had to switch due to insurance change last year) plus they are far away and I'm busy and think I know enough about having babies by now. Consequently I haven't been in very much this time around. But now I'm getting curious about how I'm measuring and baby's position and what to plan/expect for the delivery so I'm motivated to go in again.
-I'd like to get a new crib, even though it is hard to justify. Spending some time watching the classifieds and dreaming of the hand-crafted land of nod options.
-need to bring up the newborn boy boxes from the basement and assess how well equipped we are for this new baby to come. I bought some newborn diapers and pacifiers the other day. Oh man it's getting real. Now if only we could think of a good name.
-I've really got to get my work project done so I can move on to cleaning my house and doing the laundry.
-finalize a couple lower lights concerts for June and December.
-pedicure?! Massage?! Wouldn't that be so great. Maybe more realistic for next week's post-concert/post-work project plan.
-plant our vegetable garden. Every year I do it too late and I fear I'm missing the window yet again

Annee:

 Past Weeks:

-new van got on the insurance!
-George and Jane got their cavities filled. One each. Not too bad!
-subbed two days in a row!  Art one day, Jane's K/1 class the next. I managed okay, but my feet were aching by the end. Apparently you spend a LOT of time on your feet when you are being a school teacher for the day.
-an early release day where George had a playdate so I took the other three out to lunch, just for fun. Lately these kids can almost always talk me into going out on a food outing. I seem to feel hungry almost all the time. When I'm not hungry it might be because I have heartburn.
-an Earth Day play for the ladies had me at Old Navy like three days in a row. I just couldn't seem to get it right for them. In the end, the play was not a big enough deal for me to have worried on their behalf so much. They did great in the play!
-we had our big ultrasound!  The mystery was discovered, we'll be having one BOY and one GIRL. Everyone is so happy. It makes it feel so much more real now. I'll look at Jane and Ruby sitting at the table eating, or crafting together and imagine that one day their sister will be sitting there next to them. Kind of melts my heart. And the boy!  I hope he's coming good and strong, able to stand up to the three sisters who he will have as his mother-hens!  Henry is afraid he won't be here long enough to influence him and that he might be wimpy under the influence of so many girls. I tell him to rest easy, his dad is pretty good at making boys tough. It's going to be great.
- Liberty Antique Festival as our weekend date. We woke up early on Saturday, got donuts and chocolate milk for the kids, and told them not to fight while we were gone. We made it back by noon to find all getting along perfectly fine still in their pajamas. I almost thought we were going to leave the Festival empty handed, then at the last minute we found the perfect three piece wicker set for the front porch. It's not terribly "antique" which is kind of perfect because then it might last through a move or two yet to come :) Of course, I'm thinking of painting it, and making pillows, etc. Love it!

This Week:

-I'm working on some sewing projects that I'm pretty excited about. I have two smaller things to finish and then I want to make my most epic quilt to date. This one I think really is going to turn into an heirloom. But it's going to be so much work, and hurt my back so much, that I'm kind of scared. But I also know that this might be my last chance to take on such a project for a while, so I think I'm just going to go for it!  No pain, no gain!
-enjoy our last week before swim-team starts. When it does start, it's every day of the week!
-Go on the zoo field trip,  if I can't make Darin feel sorry enough for me to go in my place!
-volunteer at the spring book fair.
-Friday is our BIG date to go see "Wicked" at the Durham Performing Arts Center. I'm so excited. I hope Darin finishes his two final papers that are due on Friday before our 8pm curtain time!
-we have some details to work out about our summer travels. It's maybe time to inspect the plan closely, and fill in a few gaps, etc. My OB is worried about the current plan, of me being gone for five weeks. I need to go to a few more appointments to figure out if she is worried specifically about something, or if pregnant ladies with twins, traveling in their third trimester make her nervous in general.


Ana:

Wish I had shut my closet door...

Last week:

-Will sat up (tripod) for a few minutes on his own!  Whoo hoo!
-Will rolled over back to belly, over and over and over again.  Once in hot pursuit of a sneaky butternut squash. :)
-We instituted a new Wii rule in our house.  It used to be that Jack could only play Wii while Will was sleeping so he would be quiet, but it was eating into my alone time with Jack.  Now he can only play his allotted time while Will is awake.  That way I get some concentrated Will time and then concentrated Jack time.  So far it's made a difference in Jack's happiness level at home.  Now we spend Will's naps reading books together, playing board games or making banana pancakes together.  So much nicer.
-Went out to dinner with my sister's family.  All of the kids were so well behaved, we actually got to have conversations.  I guess the planets must have aligned because it was a lovely meal.  William tried avocado for the first time and went to town on it.  That boy loves food.  Loves it.
-Met up with friends at/after Dodgeball. Its so nice to have good girl friends.  They make me feel understood and sane. 
-Found out the big open field out of our window is not going to be developed any time soon.  I was panicking that it would be so noisy we'd have to move.  Its already been 7 moves in the almost 10 years Zack and I have been married.  I'm just not ready to move again so soon.
-Discovered that Will has no idea how to take a bottle which greatly reduces the amount of time I can spend away from him.  He has had maybe 3 or 4 bottles in his life just to make sure he would drink from one if we needed, but I guess I needed to do it more frequently because he thinks its a funny joke.
-Sent Jack to bring your kids to work day with Zack.  He had a great time and Zack even managed to do a bit of work.  Jack came home exhausted from his work day.
-Took Will in for his ear check and makeup shot appointment (we are finally caught up!).  Will is now 19.5 lbs.  If we stand him on his feet he towers over other 1 year olds we know. 


This week:
-Month end at work, Father son campout on Friday night (William is not invited unfortunately),Swim lessons, hopefully buy airline tickets for Christine's wedding, dodgeball lessons, library visits, down time with Will, down time with Jack, and maybe just maybe some down time with Zack.

Ie Li:
(No photo this time...she is pregnant and sick so she gets a pass)
Last couple of weeks:

• Steve turned 30!  We celebrated on Sunday with some cheesecake, cannolis, and crepes.  The kids blew his candles out for him.   They couldn't help it.  
• We finally bought a mattress.  It will be delivered today, thank goodness.  
• Stephen's t-ball and Mei Li's soccer games.  Sports have officially overwhelmed our schedule, especially on Saturdays.  
• Ate at McDonald's at least every other day.  It's two minutes away from our house so if I can't seem to find anything desirable to eat at home, I go there.  
• Thursday was take your child to work day!  The kids had a blast at Steve's office.  I took Mi Na back to Oakton to visit some friends.  I was able to visit five friends.  By the end of it all, I was ready for a nap. 
• Hired a babysitter on Friday between 5:30 and 11:30.  Steve and I tested out mattresses and then drove over to Potowmack Farm for Steve's birthday dinner with Rachel, Ken, Christine, and Jon.  Jon's attendance was a complete surprise.  The food was good and the setting was beautiful.  It was just so nice to sit and talk for hours without the kids.

This Week:

• Mei Li will go to a full day of school on Wednesday.  I bet she'll be pretty tired when she gets home.
• On Thursday, we'll go to Mei Li's kindergarten performance.  Mei Li says it's "tip-top secret," but I think a hoe-down will be involved.  :)
• Soccer and T-ball
• I will be 14 weeks pregnant on Thursday, I hope that the nausea magically comes to an end then.  I have been a horrible mother and wife.  Steve has been very kind about taking care of everything when he gets home from work.  
• I have a midwife appointment this week.  There are six midwives at this practice and I am excited to meet a new one.  My mother was a little concerned when I told her that I was seeing midwives instead of an OB.  She felt better when I told her I would be giving birth in a hospital and not at home.  
• Make dinner!  Last week, I made dinner once, an improvement over previous weeks.  This week, I'll make dinner twice using the crockpot.  Since morning is my best time of day, I figured that the crockpot was my only hope of getting dinner on the table.  My poor little family has been very patient with me.  

Rachel:

 Last week:

• Busy season ended Tuesday the 17th, and I'm sure you're all as glad as me to be done talking about it!  Fun Facts -- My favorite thing about busy season: being too busy to snack.  My least favorite thing about busy season: all the rounding of numbers I have to do in my head.  I wish everything could just be provided in whole numbers because when you're tired and your eyes hurt it is really annoying to be constantly rounding every number you see. 
  
• I worked from home Wednesday the 18th which was super low key.
• Thursday 19th I went to work and, surprise, I got a 5% bonus!!  Random!  It's so hard to wrap my head around that kind of positive feedback, because I feel in my own head that I could always be doing better so how could they not think the same about me?  It was unexpected and the best part for me was how excited it all made Ken!  Taking notes on the best way to react when our roles are flipped later in life.
• Watched every episode of The Kennedy's on Netflix. 
• Saturday 21st I slept in and went shopping at the Eastern Market Flea. Finally pulled the trigger on a couple Turkish rugs turned into pillows that I've been wanting for a while. Then I brought lunch to ken between his class sessions. Saturday night we met up at the temple for ward temple night. 
• Monday 23 thru Friday 27 at work was full of training and annual review writing/discussing. Blah. 
• Thursday Steve's kids came to work! Was so fun to see them!
• Friday 27th I did some shopping during our training lunch break. I'm making an effort to dress more truly business casual this summer. Most of the summer clothes I have are quite casual so I'm usually pushing the envelope a bit at work. Don't want to feel that way so much anymore. 
• Friday night the 27th we had a birthday celebration dinner with Steve and CZ at Patowmack Farm in Leesburg which is the best wedding venue option at this point!!
• Saturday the 28th was low key, some shopping and organizing. We made pizza after Ken got home from work which we haven't done in ages. It was raining hard all day. We stayed home that night which was totally boring and blah. 
• Sunday the 29th was church, dinner at a ward member's house, then we started a massive spring cleaning and organizing project. Our clothing/closet situation is so dysfunctional that it was time for an OVERHAUL. We totally rearranged everything to make room for a large new wardrobe in the guest room which we desperately need. 

This week

--Pick a hotel/bed & breakfast/apartment in Paris for our trip. 

--Grocery shop and make some meals for our family again. It's been a while. 

--My car is at the shop this week for repairs so I can pass safety inspection. We will do some creative car sharing that will mean mostly running/walking home from work for me. 

--Look at invitations with CZ on Tuesday after work

--Continue massive organizing and purging. Buy and put together new wardrobe from Ikea. 

--Friday at work everyone is going to the Dulles Sportsplex for a huge Tax Olympics day. It'll mostly be fun the have CZ there with us too!!

--Saturday night is Truckeroo down in DC where all the food trucks gather in one place for the day. A fun novelty activity. 

--More trip planning. 

--Next Thursday May 10th is the This American Life live show that CZ and I are going to see at the movie theatre. 

--GET A HAIRCUT! Agh!

--Manicure/pedicure finally? That could be nice. 

--I actually do have a lot of work to get done this week on projects I can accelerate and move along before my trip. The summer is going to fly by. 

**Christine gets a pass too this week because she is busy working, planning her August wedding and future life! 

Snug as a Bug in a Rug

I know it's a crummy photo but I LOVE having these guys all snuggled up in my bed on a lazy Saturday morning.   

It's a little piece of heaven on earth.

Christmas 2011

We did celebrate Christmas this year despite the lack of posting.   The picture quality and editing is horrible, but if I keep waiting to edit the pictures and only post the non-blurry ones, this post will never happen, or at least happen picture-less.

Christmas Eve we had Dani's family over for dinner and some last minute Santa cookie making.

We read the Christmas story out of the bible while drinking monkey drinks 2 at a time to make sure he was in bed before Santa came.

We took a Christmas Eve family photo to document that there were four of us this Christmas season

As you can tell there were no perfect shots (just feet covered, crazed look shots and me in my grubby clothes)  But we took the pictures none the less!

 The still warm cookies were left out with egg nog to help keep Santa's energy level up on his busiest night.

We all got to bed early and were awoken by a clean teethed Jack who had already made his bed at 6 am.  We managed to roll ourselves out of bed.  Will did not.

We busted quietly though the wrapping paper barracade Santa had left us

To see the splendor left below.  Santa must have thought we were really good this year.

We started opening presents

Santa always brings Pez.  I don't know why cause it's just gross.  But year after year it finds its way into our stockings

In true Jack style, he wanted me to open a present first

Jack loves helping 

We didn't forget about Will Baby upstairs

Thanks Aunt Sarah for getting William's stocking made in time for his first 

Christmas!

Finally awake!

Wait he's missing something

There.  Much better.

Jack got his much hoped for Brady jersey in red. 

And felt compelled to make this face while striking this pose

William got the marshmallows for our new smores' machine

He seemed less then impressed

Mom really wanted a nap

(Maybe they won't see me if I lie in the wrapping paper and cover myself with my hands?)

The guys keep going even though it looks like William is ready for a nap too

The aftermath

Who on earth is going to clean up this mess?

How Jack spends his days

Here's a few pictures I've taken of Jack recently to document one of his new favorite past times...

I love that I am starting to have to ask him multiple times to stop reading and come have dinner, brush his teeth, or hop in the car instead of having to ask him to turn off the wii.    Sure we still have to work on the multiple times part, but he's a work in progress :)

Some Will Baby photo love

Don't you just want to reach through your computer and kiss him!!!

Passing time

One of the best things about living close to my sister in San Diego, is when the fates align and our kids don't nap on the same days and we decide the best way to make it through the rest of the day until dads come home is to go to the beach.

We had a lovely time swinging the kids at the beach park and watching Jack play in the waves and Mads run away from them.

The view from the swings.  Life doesn't get much sweeter then this.

Aren't they all beautiful!

Yesterday Jack and Will both had colds and bad coughs.   Will was a disaster at home so we decided we might as well take our crazy out of the house for a while.  We met Dani's gang at La Jolla Cove to see the seals.  Despite a little mishap of being at the wrong seals, it was the perfect thing to take Will's mind off of his ailing little body.  He was perfectly content in the bjorn blowing spit bubbles and chatting up a storm.   We even saw a guy out walking his bunny on a leash.  He looked a little ashamed to be walking a bunny but I got a real kick out of it.  :)

Jack out on the sea wall (notice the trademark red mustache under Jack's nose.  Courtesy of him not knowing how to blow his nose.  Man, we need to work on that one...)

Me and my little loves

I am a happy lady surrounded by all these handsome guys!

Jack's First T-Ball Team

Jack has wanted to be on a real team for the last two years.  Unfortunately when you move around like we do you inevitably miss all relevant team registration deadlines while doing things like unpacking.  Saturday however, Jack finally joined his first team - The Red Sox.

His first team!!!

Waiting for his turn at bat.   I love how his uniform is not too big to look sloppy but just big enough to make him look like the small fry he still is...

Check out his "I'm ready to catch that ball stance"

First time up to bat with Red Sox Manager Zack :)

Practicing his swing

Dani, Sean and Moo made the event complete.  Jack played first base one inning and got a player out and he made it on base each time he was up to bat.

Will Baby cheering on the Red Sox on the sidelines.

After the first game, our sponsor paid to put all of the kids names on their jerseys.  Super cute!!! 

Looks like our Saturdays are going to be full of T-ball until June!

Dear Jack

Dear Jack,

Today you had your first fight with your best friend.  She's not your first best friend, but you've managed to skate by with your others without a real fight.  Until today.  Maybe it happened today because your best friend is a girl, and guys will never truly understand girls.

You came home and told your father and me that something bad happened at school.  That you had told Claire not to run on the blacktop and how she had told you she knew that already and then burst into tears.  You decided she didn't want to be your friend anymore, came home, threw the worlds largest tantrum and melted down into a big pile of mush.

It makes me remember all the fights I've had with my best friends.  The time my mom left for 20 minutes and when she got home Dani and I were both covered in one another's hand prints, the time Kristen and I fought (over what I don't remember) and my mom drove me over and forced me to apologize (a fact I made sure Kris knew) and we both burst out laughing, and all the times that your dear kind father steps on a hidden landmine and I burst into tears.

My little heart, this is the first of so many days to come where your attitude will be affected by a girl.   You will break some hearts, some will break yours, and one hopefully will make you as utterly complete as your father makes me.

Tomorrow Clarie will forgive you, or maybe she'll even ask you for your forgiveness for falling apart.  Girls are complicated like that.

Love, Mom