Jackson Robert

We'd like to introduce you to our sweet baby, Jackson Robert! He was born early Tuesday morning after about 13 hours of labor. Here are the stats:

9 lbs 4 oz
22 inches long
Born at 4:31a.m.
Tuesday, September 23rd

Daddy is in love!
Momma's big boy!

Big sister Kathryn meets Jackson for the first time!

Kisses for baby brother.

Heading to the hospital...

...stay tuned!

Quick update...

Well, the doctor says she thinks it will be within 72 hours. Of course, the baby could decide otherwise, but we'll see. If not, she wants to induce by next Tuesday, when she's on call again. So, one way or another, we've got a week or less to go!

Oh, and thanks for all your kind comments on the last post. You know, if you didn't say I looked great I'd probably cry, with all the pregnancy hormones and all... :)

Due date...

So yes, my due date was yesterday. And no, I haven't had the baby yet. Since Kathryn was two weeks early (a whole other story), I never experienced this waiting game, and let me tell you, it's awful! I don't know why I thought I'd be different than anybody else and deserved to have the baby a little early, but for some reason, I was convinced he'd be here before now (maybe it was because of all those people who kept telling me I'd "never make it" all the way, because I was way too big, etc.). But it turns out I'm not as special as I thought, and have now joined the ranks of those who have gone past their due dates. The funny thing is, although there are days (most days) that I of course want him to be here, there are other times that I think, "Just one more day would be ok." I've been really trying to relish each additional day with Kathryn, take the time to get more things done (I've been a nesting cleaning machine!), etc. But I must admit that I am often not a fun person to be around, and am quite lacking in the patience department these days. Pray for my dear sweet husband, and daughter, and anyone else who happens to get on my nerves at any given time! I have a doctor's appointment on Monday morning, so hopefully I'll have some info or news on what our plans will be over the next week (or two?). The good thing is, all this will be over in less than two weeks, so it's not gonna last forever (even though it feels like it might sometimes!). Please pray for us as we are at the end, especially for a healthy baby, and a good transition into being a family of 4! (Whoa! Are we really ready for this?!?) And finally, because every woman who makes it to the end of their pregnancy realizes she's just as beautiful as can be (can you detect my sarcasm?), here are a couple of pictures taken today, at 40 weeks and 1 day pregnant. Can you say hot momma? :)
P.S. Please excuse the potential "weirdness" of this post, as I am obviously not thinking very clearly these days!

All in a morning...

The other morning Kathryn was busy busy busy (as usual), so I got out the camera to take a few short videos of all she was doing. I didn't prompt her in any of this, I simply just kept grabbing the camera and recording (I recorded on our point and shoot, so it's not the best quality). I hope you enjoy seeing all she's been up to! Each video is only about 30 seconds long, by the way!

Here she is dancing...she was very serious about it!


Then it was time to move on to shapes. She got distracted by the camera this time (she loves to see/watch what I've just recorded, often before I'm actually done, as you'll be able to see). Also note how she keeps smiling at the camera...she didn't realize I was taking a video, and was waiting for me to take a picture. Now you can see why she has such goofy faces in most of the pictures I take of her!


Finally, here's her final activity of the morning: reading. No, she's not very verbal as far as being able to actually say lots of words for her age, but she sure does "talk" a lot! I love all the inflections she uses...so animated!

Welcome Payton Kemper Kite!!!

We are so excited to welcome little Payton Kemper Kite into our family!!! My cousin Diana and Wes have been in the adoption process for just over 9 months, and got the call this week that their sweet little baby had been born! He was 5 lbs 13 oz and 17.5 inches long...a little guy! Don't worry, though, Wes will have him throwing a football in no time! :) Welcome sweet Payton, we can't wait to meet you! (And hopefully we'll have a little cousin for you to play with very soon! How cool that they'll be just a few days apart?!?)
A beautiful family!

why he's her favorite player

I forgot to add this pic to the last post. Now you can see why Jon is Kathryn's favorite player. This is from last summer, if you couldn't tell!

Kathryn's favorite football player...

...is of course none other than UVA star Jon Copper. Thanks to Aunt KK, we all have our matching #54 jerseys, including Kathryn and Baby Brother. So Kathryn decided to ham it up for the camera to show off her jersey.



And here's a picture of Jon, in case you were wondering. Go Wahoos!!

My little cook

A while back, I posted about how Kathryn likes to help me cook, and how she wears my apron. I got lots of responses about where to find baby aprons, and after checking out Brooke's suggestion, ordered one from autumnwear. Kathryn got to use it last night while helping me fix dinner. She was so cute walking around like a big girl, and she keeps it in the drawer with my apron too. By the way, I highly recommend Autumn's creations...it's soooo cute, and Autumn was great to make sure it was exactly what we wanted!
Since what I was making was all too hot for her to handle at the time, I gave her her own cooking stuff...a metal bowl, wooden spoon, two small bowls, and some dry macaroni noodles. Now, I don't consider myself particularly creative, but I was really proud of myself with this idea. She looooved it, and it kept her entertained for quite a while! Watch the video at the end (about 1 minute long) so see how she was cooking and tasting her food. It's so fun when she pretends now...what a big girl she's becoming!!

Fluff...

So yeah, I've kinda gone of the deep end. No, really. As many of you may know, I've been considering cloth diapers for a while now. I went ahead and got some, and started Kathryn in them a few days ago. So far so good. I don't quite have all my accessories and all, so we haven't quite been doing it full time, but we've had several good days of cloth for most of the day. This is on her first day, showing off her "pretty diapers".
She made the switch fine, and seems to like them well. She knows that her cloth diapers are different than her disposables, and will show me where to put them when we change (in a diaper pail in the baby's room). I'm still in the decision-making process about what exactly to do for the baby when he's born (when to start him on cloth, what kind, etc.), but so far we like it. We'll keep you updated!

I'm at the point in my pregnancy when...

...people stop me all the time to comment on how I must be "about to pop".
...I don't fit into regular bathroom stalls anymore--it's handicapped stalls for me.
...if people don't stop to ask when I'm due, they give me very concerned/sympathetic looks. Sorry, it doesn't really make me feel any better, but thanks for trying.
...I waffle back and forth between wanting to do nothing but sit for hours, and then cleaning everything in sight.
...I wake up every day thinking, "This could be the day" then realize it could be another 4 weeks too.
...people ask "It's just one in there?"
...I get mad at every little thing, like mosquitoes, ice that melts too quickly, and dirt.
...most everything hurts, most all of the time.
...I am hungry all the time, but then eat just a small amount and feel miserable because there's simply no room for my stomach to expand with food.
...I will break out in tears, sometimes literally over nothing.
...rolling over in bed is quite the ordeal, involving lots of grunting, moaning, hoisting, and repositioning of my four (yes, four!) pillows.

But, all that being said, I know that once the baby is here, things aren't going to be easier. Sure, all the "funs" of pregnancy will be over, but with that brings many more challenges. However, I am trying to enjoy both sides of the equation. Right now, I'm trying to focus on spending good quality time with Kathryn, as I don't know when will be my last day with just her. And I'm trying to enjoy feeling the sweet kicks (and rolls, and punches, and pokes and prods) from my little guy inside. That truly is one of the greatest things about being pregnant, is feeling all those sweet movements.

Here are some pictures of the kids' rooms (wow, kids...). Kathryn loves her new bedroom, and I love how girlie it is. And the baby's room is all set and ready for him too (more prepared than I was for Kathryn...how sad!). Be sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom to see a picture of our little guy taken last week...so cute!

Noa's Song

Kathryn loves videos of kids on blogs. She particularly loves the one of Noa singing her song, and has watched it so many times that she learned it, and now loves to sing it herself. So, Noa, this is for you!

20 months old!

So, last month I said I wouldn't be doing "month" posts anymore. Well, here's another month post. I was wrong. Kathryn has just been so funny recently, and I have a couple of videos to post, so here goes. Anyway, here they are. This first one is her discovering some bird poo on our sidewalk. Anytime we say anything is stinky, yucky, dirty, or refer to her diaper, she'll say, "Shooo, shooo." It's quite funny...listen closely, and you can hear her...



This second one shows my ingenuity. Seriously. I taught the kid out to beat box! Yeah, we're that cool. You can't really hear the sound she makes when she does it, but it gives you the idea. She's pretty much the coolest kid on the block.



Finally, I thought I'd update you on a few more fronts.

Eating:
Kathryn still amazes people with her eating habits. She eats more than any kid we know. For instance, the other day for breakfast she had: Cheerios, oatmeal, eggs, raisins, grapes, and yogurt. The other night it hit me how weird she is: for dinner she ate mixed vegetables and salad. Yes, lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes. She's also known to eat green pepper strips, among other things. What one year old does this?

Playing:
Some favorite activities include: bouncing golf balls down the steps outside (and then collecting them in her bucket), picking tomatoes in the garden, and stomping on bugs (seriously).

Learning:
She's really into her alphabet, numbers, colors, and shapes. She loves reading books about them, pointing them out, etc. She can pretty consistently point out a star, circle, and triangle, and sometimes gets square and rectangle. It's a really neat learning stage.

Singing:
She loves singing and music, and doing hand motions to the songs. I will post another video soon of her doing her friend Noa's song.

Love my hubby

These pictures were taken back in the middle of July at our friend's wedding, but I never got around to posting them. Johnny looked quite handsome in his seersucker pants!
We still know how to have fun and be goofy!

I sure do love this man!!!

My Baby "Sprinkle"

This weekend my sweet friends hosted a Baby Sprinkle (aka mini baby shower!) for me! It was so fun, and so sweet to celebrate this little guy! Enjoy a few pictures.


Kathryn was my helper to open some of the gifts.

Nick picked this out himself for his nephew!

Scoping out the food. Notice her beads...she seldom leaves home without her beads on these days! So cute!!

Now all we have to do is wait for this little guy to come. We're kind of in "any day now" mode, although we know that it could still be a few weeks away. It's so hard to have such a wide range of possibilities for when he'll come, especially for my planning personality. In the meantime, I'm trying to keep somewhat on top of housework (just in case!), and enjoy lots of playtime and snuggles with Kathryn while she's our only one for just a short time more. I'm definitely in the nesting stage, though, and hope he'll be here before too long!

Jumping

For some reason, Kathryn has been really into jumping the past couple of weeks. This week in particular, she has been practicing really hard. All throughout the day, I catch her doing this, wherever she is. It's hilarious!

Girls just wanna have fun....

These pictures were taken after Kathryn had her hair up in a half ponytail for the day. We thought she looked remarkably like a young Cindy Lauper, or something like that...

Addendum-19 months old

As promised and expected, here is our addendum to the post 19 months old. I had a few more pictures to add, and a few more bits to tell you about our funny girl.

Here she is sporting my apron. She's now very interested in wearing the apron herself, but we have to tie it up just so so that she doesn't trip on it. Do they make aprons for babies?
Here she is sporting her Uncle Nick's flip flops. He left them at our house when we went to the beach, so every morning she would go around in her pj's and wear them around the house. She's at my parent's house in these two pictures...we were visiting last week and returned the shoes. She didn't let the opportunity pass, though, to wear them one last time.


Believe it or not, she walks around in them like that!
Here she is sporting one of her "pretties", a headband. She is starting to like dressing up of sorts, which involves wearing various random things like this. We thought she looked like she was going to a Springstein concert on this particular day with her hair all crazy and her American flag shirt with jean shorts.

I also forgot to mention a few things about her recently...
-She loves combining/dipping foods. For instance, at breakfast she usually eats Cheerios and oatmeal. She loves putting the Cheerios in the oatmeal, then eating them together. She's also known for putting her waffles in her yogurt, or dipping fruit in ketchup or ranch dressing (I'm not kidding!).
-She's pretty interested in bugs outside, and will follow them and try to touch them. She has no fear of things like that!
-She has been talking up a storm, but we have no idea what she's saying. She's been babbling especially a lot this past week.
-She enjoys pointing out her boo-boos and mosquito bites on her legs.
-She's started enjoying singing, especially to baby brother, and will often hum a very short tune while swaying back and forth.

Isaiah 40:25-31

²⁵ "To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.

²⁶ Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.

²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God"?

²⁸ Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.

³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

19 months old!

So, I missed posting on Kathryn's 18-month birthday, and it's now almost 2 weeks since she's been 19 months old! But, better late than never, and this will probably end the monthly updates (although I'm sure I will still update periodically based on her age and accomplishments).

We are enjoying our little girl so much every day. She constantly keeps us laughing with all of her little antics and play. Doesn't she look so big in this picture?
She's been more interested lately in "girlie" things, including having her hair up (only occasionally, though!), wearing necklaces, bracelets, getting her hair "blowdried", putting lotion on, and wearing various pieces of fabric tied around her head (kind of like Rambo) or wrapped around her arms/wrists like bracelets.

She's also enjoyed having our family room moved upstairs, which includes the comfy recliner and the television. She frequently will pull on Johnny's arm to get him up out of the chair so she can sit in it and read her books. She also loves to rock it as hard as she can (along with the rocking chair in her bedroom).

She's also been quite obsessed with flip flops lately. She's very excited to have a pair of her own, and also loves wearing ours around the house.


She also keeps us laughing with her silly looks (see above mentioned accessories she sports throughout the day).

She's becoming very good at playing/pretending with her toys. She still of course loves "talking" on the phone, and will just jabber away (as long as nobody is actually on the other line!). She runs up to us constantly and jabbers to us, also, having lots to say. If only we knew what she was saying... The funniest is when she laughs afterwards. She's apparently a really funny/witty kid! She loves taking care of her baby dolls, and will feed them, wash them, change their diapers, etc. I caught her feeding her baby doll toilet paper earlier tonight. Hmmm...

She's very interested in counting and letters right now, and loves it when we work on those. She doesn't really know any yet, although she can sign the letters A and R.

She also loves feeling her baby brother move. She will run up to me and put her hands on my stomach throughout the day, and gets the cutest grin when he kicks her. She'll also sing to him (hum and rock back and forth), and give him hugs and kisses.

We moved her to a new room a few weeks ago. She made the transition beautifully, and loves the bigger space and pretty stickers on her wall. She now knows that her old room is baby brother's room, and seldom gets confused anymore on where her stuff is.

She loves to run, and will often run instead of walking many places, including inside just from one room to the other. Her legs pretty much have scrapes and "boo-boos" constantly, up and down her legs. In fact, the other week, she fell three days in a row, scraping the same place on the same knee. It was pretty messy by the third time, and she was very concerned about her boo-boo. When asked where her boo-boo is, she'll point to her knees.

She loves to go up (and down!) the stairs by herself, holding on to the rail, just like we do. It scares us and we keep gates up, but whenever she sees the stairs "open", she's off and halfway up or down by the time we get to her!

Well, as always, I'm sure there's tons more. That's all my brain can remember right now, but I'm sure there will be an addendum later! Thanks for reading about our little girl.

Myrtle Beach

So, I hardly took any pictures while on vacation in Myrtle Beach with the Sinks. So, I had to steal a couple from Lindsay, and the rest will just not be documented in pictures. We had a week camping at the beach! I dubbed the week "All About KK" week because Kathryn was crazy about KK the whole week. If KK was around at all, Kathryn wanted her to hold her, play with her, etc., even above me! But she had lots of fun getting lots of attention from family that loves her.

Kathryn took her first carousel ride while there. She liked trying out all the different horses before it started. Once it started moving, she wasn't too sure about it, but would sit still as long as I sang to her!
Kathryn liked trying on Lindsay's glasses.

Johnny reading Kathryn a bedtime story. I'm so bummed I didn't take a picture of where Kathryn slept this time. She actually slept in a bottom bunk bed with a toddler rail! She did really well in it!

Feeding the squirrels outside of the trailer. If you look closely to the right of the front bike tire (and a bit beyond it), you can see the squirrel. Kathryn looooves animals, and will squat down, pat her leg, and make a kissing sound to "call" them to herself. So she was very excited to see so many squirrels. Feeding them, for her, consisted of getting a handful of peanuts, and putting them in a pile beyond the little rug we had out.

Being silly in the car on the way home. She was in the backseat, and I had to look back there because I heard her laughing, and this is what I saw...

Back home!

Just wanted to post a quick update and let all you concerned blog readers know that we are back home from our third and final beach trip this summer! No, this picture is not from this last trip, but the one before. I haven't loaded the pictures from last week yet, but there are only about 3 pics to load anyway I think (I didn't take much, especially for me!). But, I thought it was a cute picture, and I couldn't have three posts in a row with no pics, so here ya go:Anyway, we had a great time in Myrtle Beach with the Sinks. It was a nice relaxing time of swimming, hanging out at the campground, reading, playing cards, shopping, and eating! It is nice to be home now, though, and we are busily trying to get unpacked, laundry done, etc. so that we can get to the other projects around the house (cleaning, preparing for baby, etc.). Kathryn did great on the trip, and even slept in a big girl bed with a toddler rail! Keep checking back in the next couple of weeks...I have lots to update about, including:
-the few pictures from Myrtle Beach
-Kathryn's new bedroom!
-preparations for the new baby
-and more!