getting the hang of it

I'm starting to feel like raising two kids is a possible feat. I still get lots of help (thankfully), but I'm learning how to survive on my own too. Nate's still being awesome. He keeps the house clean, makes dinner, and entertains Colin when I need to feed Kate. And he doesn't even complain about angry baby noises in the middle of the night. What a champ. That about sums it up for us—here are some pictures of our cute kiddos. (And by kiddos I mean mostly Kate.)

Kate was pretty yellow for a while, but she's starting to look more normal now. This is her waiting patiently for a diaper change about a week and a half ago.

Here are some pictures from her first bath. I was pretty paranoid about it, but everything was fine, and she smelled so nice when it was all done.

Baby's first combover. She has some hair in the back, but very little of it on top.

I forced her into the whoville pajamas after her bath. She was thrilled. And then they were way too big so I had to change her again. Poor abused little baby.

Brad, DeAnna and Donovan came over for dinner last Saturday while Brad was still in town. Colin and Donovan played so well together. It was a hoot to watch them interact. When it was time for Colin to go to bed Nate took him in for a bath, and Donovan decided he wanted one too. Nate took these pictures because I was stuck in my room feeding Kate.

One night Kate and I were napping in the recliner. She sort of slid off of my chest and into the crevice between me and the arm of the chair. She was so happy and content there that I took a picture.

I think she had her eyes open when I went to take this, but she closed them up again.

Colin loves to be around Kate. He comes running into my room in the morning to see her and point out her body parts and give her kisses and play with her bouncer. I can't wait until I can get a picture of them both looking and smiling at the same time.

Nate said she was making old man frowns at him, so I tried to get a picture of it.

On Wednesday I took the kids over to Granny's house so we could hang out with Hannah and DeAnna and Donovan before the latter two had to go back to Iowa. Colin and Donovan jumped on Hannah's bed, and then it was time to go to sleep.

They also danced to the Hot Diggity Dog song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Colin and I have never actually watched that show, but I guess he's seen it with Donovan. He loves the hot dog song. He just dances and giggles hysterically when he hears it.

Here's a video of the boys dancing to the song. Sorry it's kind of hard to see—the sun was a little on the bright side.

I have no idea what to say about this picture. Make up your own caption.

She has such a sweet little fat face. That's why I call her Fat Face.

I just wanted a picture of her wearing this cute little dress from Tia. But you can't really tell that it's a dress in this shot, and Kate is pretty mad. She kind of looks like a boy in a dress to me in this picture, but I promise she really did look adorable.

After Kate's bath the other night I tried sticking a headband and bow on her to take a cute picture, but things didn't quite work out the way I planned. From this angle you can't see the bow. (PS, I made that bow.)

This is before I put the bow on her head. I was just trying to get one of her awake. She was not pleased.

I wanted to flip the blanket over so she'd be on a cute pink background instead of white on white, but she was sleeping so peacefully that I didn't want to bother her.

Also, the lighting in my bedroom is not ideal.

Oh well. I still think she's pretty.

kate: take 2

My sister-in-law Hannah came to the hospital and played Canasta with me while I was induced. It was nice to have something to take my mind off of being in labor. And it was nice to kick her trash even though I wasn't totally coherent.

My mom holding Kate for the first time. Kate's middle name is also my mom's middle name which is also her grandmother's middle name. That's where it comes from. And it's pronounced "lee-own" not "leon-e" or "whatever other crazy pronunciation you've come up with."

Kate with Papa Silvey.

Kate and Granny Silvey having a discussion.

Kate and Daddy holding hands. I'm guessing this is in the nursery while she's being cleaned and checked out since I wasn't there.

Happy happy Kate getting dressed to come home.

She was much happier once we stopped forcing clothing onto her.

Kate and Nate waiting oh so patiently to be allowed to go home.

Yep, still waiting.

Finally Kate's test results came back and we were given the go-ahead to take her home. The ride home was awesome. Kate started crying as soon as we buckled her into the car seat, but she stopped once we got the car going. Unfortunately I started crying as soon as she stopped and cried the whole was home. I haven't really stopped crying yet. Last night I cried because the pizza cutter was dirty when I wanted to use it and then again when I couldn't decide between a paper plate and a regular plate.

Here's the proud big brother with his new plaything. Colin loves coming to see "Tate" and say "Hi baby!" He gives her pats on the head, smells the flowers on her blanket, points at her nose and eyes, and gives her hugs and kisses. He also loves to play with/in the bouncer she sleeps in so we have to watch him carefully. So far he's been great with her. I hope that trend continues.

I was trying to get a picture of Kate not making strange faces, but I was not successful.

Nate took this one, but the flash kind of ruined it.

I took this one. It's a much better picture.

These are the infamous duck slippers from Uncle Doug. For pictures of Colin wearing the same slippers see this post.

The yellow blanket really sets of the jaundice in her face. So pretty.

We hadn't picked up the mail in about 2 weeks, so yesterday my mom and Colin ventured out into the cold to retrieve it. Colin got to play with all the junk mail. And by play with I mean rip apart.

And here's Nate and Kate after a long day of working and eating/sleeping, respectively.

That's it for pictures. Nate's gone back to work, but he's a champ with taking care of Colin and the house in the evenings. Colin has been playing with his cousin at Granny's house every morning while my mom is still asleep, then he comes home and plays with us. I think his energy level has doubled since last Saturday. I don't remember him being so active before. I've been struggling with nursing Kate, but we're trying to hang in there. Pray for us. Please! Other than that I'm doing really well. Recovery (aside from the consistent emotional distress and relentless crying) has been a breeze. I think that has had a lot to do with all the help we've received from friends and family this week. Thanks guys! As for future pictures of the family, I'll try to blog again when I feel like it.

Little Kate

Nate and Kirsta are proud to present - Dr. Porter's last delivery:

Kate Leone Silvey

11/29/09 2:06 pm

7lb 13oz

19.5 in

I don't have much else to say. She's pretty quiet. It's great. Mom and baby are doing very well. Hope to get home Mon evening.

one last post...

before baby comes.

Here are the pictures from the last week and a half. There aren't very many.

Colin's pretty good about smiling when I get the camera out and ask him to. Also, he likes to eat chocolate cookies.

Last Saturday we took the car in for new tires and thought we could hang out at the mall while we waited. (Turns out we couldn't because it took 4 hours instead of 2 so we walked to Sam's Club and froze and everyone was ornery and needed a nap by the time it was over.) I had an eye exam during that time, which was nice, but then we had nothing else to do. We took Colin down to the cars and he had a great time sitting there spinning the wheels. I don't know what we'll do when he figures out that you can put money in and awesome things will happen. Occasionally some of the other rides would make noises, like creepy kids laughing, and he would get startled and confused.

He would turn around and pet the animals in the jungle jeep.

I felt kind of silly standing there taking pictures at the mall, but he was being so cute I couldn't help it.

Aww, what a sweet drool-y boy.

I made a tutu for my niece for Christmas, and I tried it on Colin to make sure it would fit her okay (they're almost the same size).

He was following me around telling me how pretty he was. "Pretty! Pretty!" He does look pretty.

Bry in a bag.

And this is the only picture I took on Thanksgiving. Nate and I ate with my family while Colin took a nap. It was nice to eat food that was still warm. And it was nice to only have 5 sets of dishes to clean up; it was so speedy. After lunch everyone else at our house took a nap, so we headed over to Nate's brother's house to play some games and eat some pies. Some of the adults played pick up sticks. That's right, the adults, not the kids. We also played Beatles Rockband and Canasta and Apples to Apples. Oh what fun.

And here's one last look at big fat me. I know it's not the greatest shot, but Nate wasn't being very helpful when it came to picture taking. His exact comment was, "This is dumb." Next time pictures are posted I will be approximately one baby lighter. And because this is the only thing that is currently buoying up my self esteem, I'm going to share with you all that those are NOT maternity pants. That's right—I'm still wearing my regular jeans. Way to go me.

I'm scheduled to be induced on Sunday—barring some miracle where I actually go into labor on my own between now and then. Stay posted for some pictures this weekend of our new baby girl!

november 6-15

Here's a super long video of Colin and I hanging out in his room. He shows off some of his tricks and words. This was taken early last week, and he's actually quite a bit clearer in his speech already.

I made an awesome spinach smoothie the other day. It gave Colin an awesome green mustache.

It's a good look on him, right?

Colin's friend Mary came over to play one afternoon. Actually it might be more accurate to say that Colin ran across the street and forced Mary to come over and play with him. He wanted to show her how great the dirt at our house was, I guess.

He also read her a book.

Nate was being silly and rocking Colin like a baby one evening before bed. I guess Colin liked it because he kept going back to him, singing, and flopping down on Nate's lap.

Colin's new favorite song? Manamana from the Muppets. This was his first time listening to the song.

And here's a picture of me circa 38 weeks. Thankfully I only have 2 weeks or less to go (because babies always arrive by their due date, right?).

because people like discounts

So, because people like discounts, if you order Christmas cards from me by November 19 then you, yes YOU, will receive a discount! Huzzah! For the low, low price of only $8 (that's a savings of over 46%!) I'll design whatever you want—all you have to do is tell me what you want and supply a picture. If you order between November 20 and 30 then the low, low price shifts to $10. (The price will be increasing because my size will be increasing.) After the 30th the price goes back to normal. So tell your friends and get your holiday cheer on and put an order in today!

best parent ever

Colin got his first (but certainly not last) black eye on Monday. Tia and I were at a scrapbook sale at the school district, and Colin came with us. He was pretty good, running around but not destroying anything. Then he ran full speed into a table that was at eye level, bounced off, and crashed on the floor. He was not pleased. It took a few seconds before we could tell where he hit, and then the bruise around his eye blossomed. We left right after that. Good times.

Here are the pictures I took to document the event.

Monday

In this picture you can also see the bruise on his ear from where he ran his head into the bed the night before. Unfortunately you can't see the remnant of the cut under his chin from when he crashed into a computer monitor a week or two ago. That would have really made this shot great.

Tuesday

Wednesday

Probably the best day for his eye. The bruise was good and dark.

Thursday

It looks much better today, no?

I'm thinking of using these pictures in my campaign for Mother of the Year.

your guess is as good as ours

I saw this on my cousin's blog and thought it looked like fun. Please to be clicking and filling out your guesses. We'll let you know in a few weeks who the winner is.

baby pool

halloween

Okay, these first few are from before Halloween. Colin just looked so cute in his hand-me-down winter coat that I couldn't resist taking a picture. As always, he's walking right toward me because he wanted the camera.

He also looked cute jammed into his carseat in that big pouffy coat.

We had two options for a Halloween costume, both of which were hand-me-downs from cousins. Option #1 was a bear. I thought it likely he would catch a chill if I let him out of the house dressed like this, so we went with

Option #2, a pumpkin. I was surprised that he kept it on the whole time we were at the trunk-or-treat.

He had a great time running around the parking lot, saying "Hi," and "Boo!" Nate said he also liked chasing the cars. (Nate was in charge of following him around. I was in charge of sitting at the car.)

I dressed up too. Can't you tell? I had a lava-lava and a shell necklace, so I was super tropical and stuff. Basically that was the only costume that was going to fit me. Colin and Nate came over and helped hand out the candy when the kids finally started coming around. Colin got a little whiney then because we were giving his candy to other kids and not to him.

Since trunk-or-treat only lasted 30 minutes we headed over to Granny and Papa's house to let them see Colin in his costume. Justin and Diana Dye were there with their precious daughter/lion, Sarah. And we ran into Luke McCausland, one of Nate's high school classmates, and his family in front of the Silvey's house too. The McCauslands had a little boy about Colin's age who was dressed as a dragon. I got Colin out of the car and set him down, and the little boy came up and smiled at Colin—who promptly burst into tears. I don't know what upset him so much, but he was not happy and needed to go inside and get a hug from his granny. The kid didn't touch him or take his candy or anything. It was weird. Colin also seemed a little upset with the candy bowl at Granny's. He would whine and walk around it when it was on the floor. Strange kid.

I started my new calling as the Junior Primary pianist today, which was fun. I like being in Primary still but not having to teach lessons anymore. The Primary president, Sister J, was pointing out to the kids that I was playing the piano now instead of teaching, and she said this: "Sister Silvey used to teach the CTR 5 class, but she's going to have a baby soon so we slid her over here (gesturing to the piano) because she needed a bigger bench to sit on." Good one, Sister J. The kids didn't really get it, but the other adults and I had a pretty good laugh.

Also, we made DeAnna's alfredo sauce again today. We used the heavy cream instead of the half and half (Nate's idea), and it turned out delicious again. I also made homemade breadsticks, per Nate's request. He really enjoyed his dinner, but he was sad that he couldn't eat as much as he wanted because his stomach had shrunk from fasting all day (plus an extra hour because of the time change). I was sad because I could eat as much as I wanted, and it made me cringe inside to even think about what and how much I was eating.