Paigey vs. Curtis

My week of being home/at the hospital with my family is quickly coming to a close. The hospital stay went well enough (despite the generally poor service at Intermountain Medical Center) and we were happy that it was much shorter than our first go round. When the time came to leave, though, we were just as nervous as first-time parents. We worked to get Curtis into Paige's old car seat. We had to keep tightening and tightening those straps until it was small enough to fit the little guy. When we got him in the car we both immediately had the feeling of 'what are we going to do with this kid now?'

The first big challenge was facilitating his permanent introduction to his big sister. We took Curtis over to Traci's mom's to pick up Paige. We sat Curtis' car seat down in the living room and didn't say much about it to Paige. She saw him and kind of half-acknowledged him. We were okay with that. When we put them both in the car to go back home, we took away all books/toys that could have possibly been used as a projectile weapon.

Once at home, things went okay. Paige's only real reaction came when Curtis began to cry a bit. "Waaa!" Paige exclaimed. "Paigey's sad."

"Sure you are, sweetheart."

The next morning came the real breakthrough. Paige got out of bed and headed into our room to start her morning routine of watching The Wiggles with Traci. Traci was on the bed, with Curtis lying next to her. Paige walked up to the side of the bed and happily exclaimed, "Baby Brother!" She got up on the bed and had to hug and kiss him. "Oh, it's Curtis!" She then had to hold him, which she affectionately did with her arms wrapped tightly under his chin, not unlike a sleeper hold.

Since then, she's been pretty good about having him around. She only gets upset when I'm holding him instead of playing with her. We'll see how she does tomorrow when Traci's on her own and Paige can't have someone's full attention.

Welcome to the Club

I guess I am now officially part of the raising-a-boy crew. Curtis gave me an initiatory squirt this afternoon when I attempted to change his diaper. His distance was matched only by his aim.

Little Baby: Day 2

When I got back to the hospital this morning, little Curtis had already had a visit from the snip-snip doctor. I almost fainted when I saw it, but he seemed to be taking it like a champ.

Welcome to the Family

Just 8 1/2 short hours ago, we welcomed little Curtis into our family. He was 7 lbs, 4 oz and 19 inches long with a ton of brown hair.

At about 8:30 this morning Traci said that she didn't think we should go to church because she was having contractions; by 9:30 we had all of our stuff together. We dropped Paige off at my sisters and were on our way to the hospital. By 10:00 Traci was dilated to a 7 and by noon she was ready to start pushing. At 1:24, the little boy formerly known as Max Power made his appearance.

We are very happy that everything went so smoothly (and were incredibly surprised by how quickly) and that Traci didn't have to have another C-Section. Traci is feeling much better than she did after having Paige and Curtis is doing just fine.

This afternoon, Jenny brought Paige to meet her little brother. When she walked in the door, she saw me lift Curtis out of his crib and sit down on the chair. She immediately came over to me and said, "Put him back in the bed, put him back in the bed." It's going to be a rough transition.

Waiting for Max Power

I am constantly on cell phone watch these days, expecting to get the "I'm having a baby" call at any minute. However, I feel 100 percent unprepared for the arrival of this little guy.

I can't speak for Traci, but looking back at this pregnancy from my perspective, I'd say it's been kind of a rough go. Traci got pregnant right after we moved into our new house and felt lousy immediately. She was very sick, which was made more difficult by trying to chase Paige around and by having to try to unpack and organize a house at the same time.

Right after she started feeling better, she slipped and fell down the stairs. We were lucky that she didn't get hurt, other than the pain of landing right on her tail bone, which lasted a couple of long weeks.

After the stairs incident, Traci felt better for about a second before she started having the early contractions at five months. The doctor told her she needed to be on bedrest for a month (which she did half-heartedly at best). Now she's all healed up, just in time to fill lousy because she can't find a way to sleep comfortably at night. Through all of this, she's kept working (except for the bedrest era) and has taken care of our cute little monster.

I asked her a couple of months ago how many kids she wants to have, thinking that she would surely say that we'd be done after this one. She said at least three. I guess that if she said it while miserable, she must really mean it.

After this cute little boy greets us, I'm sure that we'll forget a lot of this, hence the blog to, you know, remember the misery.

Kindergarten Cop: The Finale

Today was my last session at Monroe Elementary School. Each week I read the kids a story and then we do an activity. As a going away gift, I handed out a mini version of the story book to each of the kids today. I said, "This book is just like the one I've been reading to you guys, but it doesn't have any words. Why do you think it doesn't have words?"

One of the girls raised her hand and said, "Because we don't know how to read."

"Well, that's a good point, but it's also so you can take the books home and make up any words you want to go along with the pictures."

And with that, I bid Monroe Elementary adieu.

no play for mr. gray

Spencer: What color's Mommy's hair?
Paige: It's brown.
Spencer: It's red.
Paige: It's brown.
Spencer: What color's Paigey's hair?
Paige: [looks up] It's brown.
Spencer: What color's Daddy's hair?
Paige: It's gray.

I'm going bald, but my hair's not gray.