Photo Shoot

We've had a lovely, relaxing day today. The last three days we've had to be up and out by 10am, so this morning we took it easy and had fun at the house. Yesterday I made my first solo trip with both kids -- just to Melissa's house, so it wasn't really a "public" place -- she totally spoiled us by feeding us lunch and taking Rand and Bella swimming. Rand came home nice and tired out!
Last week we went and got family photos done when Ella was a whopping 5 days old. Dad came along to entertain Rand and brought his camera. We should be getting the proofs back sometime this week.

So sweet!

Just kidding -- Revenge of the naked baby! I think she looks a bit smug. Werner handled the whole situation remarkably well.

Tummy time!

Ella had her first "tummy time" yesterday. Rand asked what she was doing, and I explained why babies needed to spend time on their stomachs. Rand said that big boys needed that too, and promptly laid down next to Ella.

More pictures!

Much has been going on in the world of Rand and Ella! Rand is doing a great job adjusting to his little sister. Ella had another midwife appointment on Saturday and weighed 7lbs 12oz, which means she gained a total of 8oz in 5 days (she lost 4oz in the two days after she was born)! She is eating and sleeping beautifully and loves to be held.

Ella and Daddy

Rand is very good about sharing his trains!

Ella and Mani, the midwife who delivered her

Ella and Leah

Tia, Ella, and Rand

Best parents ever!!!

Attention! If you are having a baby in the near future, these folks are AWESOME to have around:

They will....

Hold the baby...

...and fix everything on your to-do list....

...and hold the baby....

...and play silly games....

...and hold the baby!!

Seriously, it was great having them here. They did a fantastic job taking care of Rand, taking him swimming and putting him down for naps and playing with him non-stop. Mom did all of my laundry, cleaning, errand-running, and grocery shopping, plus took care of all our meals and stocked our fridge and freezer with all kinds of goodies.

Dad fixed everything that needed fixing -- replaced a window, put window tinting on our windows, fixed a broken light and a busted faucet, and even bought us some new tools and a toolbox because our hodgepodge collection wasn't quite up to his standards! He also came along with us to our first family photo session to help entertain Rand and took Ella to her first doctor's appointment. Margie helped me in whatever I asked her to do, and she was especially good at holding Ella! John did a fabulous job in playing with Rand.

We felt very, very loved and spoiled by their visit. It made such a huge difference -- I was feeling great by the time they left, and it's made the transition from one kid to two very smooth. Thank you thank you thank you!!

Time to rename the blog....

Eleanor Mabel ("Ella") is here! She was born on Saturday, July 19th at 8:38am and was in a big hurry to get here -- labor was 5 hours from start to finish! She weighed 7lbs 8oz and was 21" long. She has been an absolutely lovely baby -- many more pictures and posts to follow!

Sunday School projects

Rand loves going to church. Not only is there a train track to play with, but he always comes home with a fun craft that he made. A few weeks ago all of the kids made "glasses" -- Rand thought that these were great!

Favorites

A Few of Rand's Favorite Things.

"Go, Dog, Go" and "Read-Aloud Bible Stories"
Otter pops
His sunglasses
Scooping yogurt pretzels at Sprouts
Playing with the train track at Barnes & Noble
Making banana pancakes
Animal crackers
Watching the lightning in the sky
Sneaking into mommy's bed at 5am
Super Why! on PBS Kids
Playing Daddy's guitar

Recently, his new answer to the question, "Rand, would you like to ____?" is "I would love to." How cute is that?!

Cool kids

These are from a couple of weeks ago, but we sure had fun playing at Westgate with the Wotherspoon kids! Rand is very proud of his sunglasses and loves to wear them when we go outside. He is finally starting to get wet when we go to water play areas!

Happy 6th of July!

Just a couple days late....sadly, we had a less than stellar 4th, but we'll try again next year. Rand decided to celebrate his independence by waking up at 5:30am and not going back to sleep! Werner had an early morning hair appointment, so I spent the morning dozing on the couch while Rand watched PBS Kids all morning. He had a fantastic time.

After I finally woke up enough to function, I thought I should prepare Rand for the fireworks, since he'd never seen them before. I found some videos on YouTube and he was absolutely fascinated. He immediately started asking when we were going to go see the fireworks -- but the show didn't start until 9pm, so it was a very long afternoon of replying "Not yet, but soon!" to his queries.

I managed to hang off on leaving for the Fireworks Place (actually a park in Peoria) until 6pm, when it had cooled down to a lovely 102 degrees. They had a lot of fun things for kids to do, and Rand had a great time playing with bubbles and doing little carnival type games, like throwing rings and beanbags.

When we went over to the water slide area, he waited and waited patiently in line for his turn on the little kids slide -- and when we were next, the ride closed down due to the winds that had been steadily picking up! Rand handled the disappointment really well and we headed off to get some funnel cake. Meanwhile, the sky kept getting darker...and windier....with "light-en-ing"!

While we were in line for our funnel cake, the wind started blowing so hard that the water slides fell down, the food booths started loosing their flags, and the sand started really stinging when it hit us. I picked up poor Rand and he buried his face in my neck and wouldn't look up -- so I decided to call it a day. It was nearly 8pm by then and the fireworks were going to be cancelled due to the nasty weather, so we headed back to the car, stopped at McDonalds for an ice cream cone, and watched the fireworks on TV.

We were both pretty disappointed, but Rand cheered up with the ice cream and had a good time watching them on TV. Thankfully he seems to have forgotten about the fireworks since he hasn't mentioned them -- and both Werner and I know better than to bring them up. Maybe we'll come out to California for fireworks next year, since I'm pretty sure they won't be cancelled there because of a monsoon!

This picture makes me smile.

Techno boy

Have I ever mentioned that Rand loves electronics? He found Margie's camera while we were in California and had a fantastic time pointing it at everybody and saying, "CHEEEEEEEESE!"

Right now he's on a plugging-things-in-and-out-of-the-wall kick. I have to watch him very carefully, because every chance he gets, he's trying to plug something in or take something out. We're working on him only doing this with an adult around, but I'm thinking it may take one good shock for him to learn that I'm really not trying to be mean, I'm just trying to protect him! He'll come up at random times and say, "Do you need something plugged in, mom?" Usually the answer is a "No, thanks, I'm good" but if I do need something plugged in, wow, is he in heaven!