Little Brother

Don't they look alike??

Here's Aaron at 4 days old and Timmy at 2 weeks old.

When he first came out, I thought Aaron looked exactly like Timmy. Now, each day I can see more and more that they have their own little look about them, but definitely brothers.

Everyone keeps asking how Timmy has reacted to the new baby. His first reaction on meeting Aaron was to growl, and pull his blanket down to look at him. When Aaron didn't respond, he just lost interest and was all over the hospital room looking for more interesting things to play with and eat.

When Aaron came home, Timmy rocked his car seat a few times and pointed to him, and then lost interest again. 

Today was cute! Timmy brought him a book and opened it to show him the pictures. When I was putting them down for a nap, Timmy was really interested in watching him cry.

Here's Grandma Parker and Timmy. Timmy had so much fun with my mom! We were SO glad she was here. She made lots of yummy food for us while she was here. Soup, lasagna, spinach quiche, oatmeal cookies, pumpkin pie and cookies, salad, and on and on. She not only left us with a clean house, but fresh flowers on the table, food to eat, clean sheets, bedding, and clothes. We're all set up! I was also so glad that mom and dad were here to entertain me while I was waiting for Aaron to come.

Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

We'll see if Timmy gets jealous of Aaron now that Grandma has gone home. He had a lot of attention. But so far, Aaron is fitting into the family well, and Timmy has just accepted that he's here.

Aaron Paul Stapleton

Origins of the name: We both prayed about it, and went through our list of 30 names we liked. We each had our favorites, but when we came to Aaron, we just agreed that it felt right. His middle name, Paul, is in tribute to Katie's grandpa R. Paul Cracroft. He passed away in 2008, and he was the only grandpa that we both knew and loved. He was an avid Ute fan and a witty writer with a die-hard sense of humor. We hope that our Aaron can grow up to be a good man like his great-grandpa.

Endlich, Nummer Zwei

Number Two has finally decided to grace us all with his presence.  The short story is this: Hooray for DRUGS!!!  Hip-hip, hooray!  Hip-hip, hooray!  

Now the long story: KT started mild contractions last night at about 11, woke up with strong contractions at about 4 am, and we got to the hospital at around 6.  Her contractions were killing her: they were all in her back just like last time, and she was having a rough go.  

Also, the hospital seemed to have an influx of laboring women due to a small storm: the nurse is sure that the barametric pressure change induces labor: which is one we hadn't heard (this week, it's been fun hearing everyone's different theories on means of inducing labor.)  KT had a piece of pumpkin pie yesterday, so I'm going to claim it was pumpkin pie.  Hear that all you overdue expectants?  Load up on pumpkin pie to get that labor kicking into high gear (studies have shown that german chocolate cake or cheesecake are acceptable substitutions for pumpkin pie).  While we're discussing pie..... wait, what was I saying again?  Oh right, childbirth.  We'll have to save the pie discussions for next time.

So we went in, and KT was a 6.  "Epidural, Epidural!" the crowd cries.  But there was no anacezi-, anesethio.., drug guy around so she had to wait.  However, angel in scrubs did show up to grant her one wish: numbness from the waist down.  This was followed by hours of painless labor (the best kind of labor), sleeping, and listening to music.  I was getting really bored on the sidelines, so they ruptured her membranes and she started pushing.  The little guy squeezed out of there after about 30 minutes of rather intense pushing.  I was pretty shocked to see the resident yank him out: she put her foot up on the bed as an anchor, and just pulled the heck out of him.  You would think she was pulling a stubborn root out of the ground and not a baby.  

Anyway, Number 2 (aka "the baby") started coming out, and it was soon clear that there was a lot more of him coming out than anyone had previously supposed.  All the nurses made their bet as to how much he weighed, and one of them guessed it right on the button: 9 lbs., 10 oz.!!  So, the moral of this story is, eat pumpkin pie at least a few days before your due date, not 11 days after.  

Only under the influence of an epidural can one smile so nicely during contractions

Stay tuned for the unveiling of the name......

Timmy Walks

So, T-man has been able to walk the walk for a while, but he's just now started walking without us having to trick him into it.  You might ask: How did we do it???  Answer: Grandma and Grandpa!!!

So the Parker Parent visit hasn't been quite as planned: they were supposed to be the clean up crew to take care of the wreckage of our post-birthing lives, but there has been no birthing up till this point, so it was a marvelous vacation instead.  Activities included: polar bear swim, Natural History Museum visit, Heidelburg Anniversary dinner (it was our anniversary, but we let everyone come along too), picnic at the Arboritum, spectacular Blue Bus rides, Arel's 2nd Birthday Bash, Jungle Java, Pirated movie watching, etc, etc, etc.  In other words, it was a blast.  Unfortunately, we couldn't induce labor with all that activity, so wive's tales be damned!!!

One of the many reason's why "Bampa" was one of Timmy's first legible words.  



For those of you who wonder how pregnant she really is....

Hopefully, there won't be another one of these "Pregnant Profile" shots until child Number 3, but who knows what the future will hold.  One Parker (Katie's Dad) has gone home without meeting Number 2 in the flesh, but hopefully the other Parker Parent won't.  Wish us luck.  

Are We There Yet?

In case you haven't noticed...the countdown to the right is actually the count-OVER beyond the due date. We're ready baby! You can come.

Signing

This is TImmy's toy cupboard. He spends a lot of time bringing me books to read from here.




This is Timmy Signing. He wants me to quit bugging him, so he's not paying full attention. But, he is signing more, please, thank you and baby. At the beginning he's pulling out all the signs to get to more because he's distracted by his show. :)

No news is good news?

May 15th has come and gone people! No news about the baby to share...but then...no news is good news right?

Well, some other news anyway. Timmy has all-of-a-sudden started to excel at sign language. He was really fighting me on signing words I KNEW he KNEW before. He has really picked up on a lot more words now, and is happy and excited to communicate more and more. That is so fun! He can sign mommy, daddy, grandma, grandpa, more, drink, all done, milk, cereal, banana, juice, frog, dog, cat, and some others. He also likes to try to say animal sounds too. Very cute!

Well...I've gone walking and helped a friend clean up her apartment to move today. If that doesn't start labor, what more can I do? Caster Oil? Ewwww.

Timmy with his Compact

This is what little boys learn from their mothers.



Scott just got a fellowship with NASA, which is wonderful! He'll be required to do 10 weeks of research at their Cleveland facility each summer. I was a little sad, because I wasn't sure if (practically & financially) we could go with him. We were considering having him commute home weekends. We just found out that it can be arranged for us to go the whole time! I am SO glad. Timmy obviously needs his daddy! And with a newborn, I am glad I don't have to be a single mom during the week.

Jungle Java Playgroup

For playgroup last week, we went to Jungle Java. Look at this look of total ecstasy on Timmy's face. He's like that the whole time, just laughing, crawling around everything. It's totally worth the $3. Here's some pics of the fun.


Here's Timmy with his little girlfriend, Ashlyn. He was so excited to see her yesterday, he was literally squealing with excitement. She likes to beat on him, but he takes it cause he likes her so much. She's moving to Chicago in a few weeks! So sad! We'll have to go visit her Timmy.
The Bubble
Here's the whole group:
Timmy, Ashlyn, Evelyn, Brooklyn, Max
This picture shows how "fun" it is to have your mom try to get you to sit still for a picture.

Creating Life

This is an inspiring video for anyone....but kind of helps to think about when you are two weeks out from your due date. I'm creating. I'm creating.