Don't cry little brother

Silas was on his playmate and started to cry Noah ran over, sat down in front of him and started talking really loud with much expression. Here is my translation of what he was thinking and saying to his little bro:) It was so funny and fabulously adorable. I need to get in the habit of keeping the video camera handy, this would have made a great video:)

"Don't cry little Brother; here let me take off your sock maybe or hot"

"Ok that did not work; here let me read you your book"

My Boys

Silas is one month old already; I can not believe it.
He is a good baby, however he is very VERY particular. Eric and I finally figured out what he likes and that is sitting up; He wants to see the world. He has amazing head and neck control for a one month old.

I am so grateful for both Noah and Silas!

Noah is my miracle baby; as many of you know my doc declared a miscarriage and wanted to do a D&C at 7 weeks, instead of the D&C I opted for a second opinion and on the day I would have had a D&C his heartbeat was detected - Praise God! Noah is my joy and special to me because he gave me the gift of motherhood and has taught me patience and humility.
Silas is my Joy and special to me b/c he has made me an even better mother and has taught me even more patience and humility!

I love my boys to death ( all three of them:)
I can not imagine my days without them!

Pumpkins, pumpkins and more pumpkins

A trip to the pumpkin patch on a beautiful fall day

Noah was way to into the pumpkins to cooperate for a family picture

Wow, this is the biggest ball ever, and their everywhere

Silas and I

The next three pics are my favorite! They are of Noah about 1 minute after leaving the pumpkin patch. Looks like someone had a great time:)

The End!

Transition

For Noahs' morning nap today I decided to try and put him in his toddler bed. We are not planning on buying a second crib and hope that by the time Silas is ready for the crib Noah will be adjusted to the toddler bed. I had planned on getting him used to it while I was still prego but selfishly I did not b/c when napped I needed to nap.
So today I was feeling brave, I took everything off the bookshelf and placed pillows on the floor next to the bed, I sang a song about being a big boy in his big boy bed and then put him in the bed and snuggled him up.
I left the room and for about 5mins I heard him running around, then all of a sudden it was silent. I waited a couple minutes before peeking in.

This is what I found after peeking in on the silent room.

I left the room and thought to myself " wow, that was a quick transition"
No sooner did I hear a big bang followed by a heavy cry - I ran in to snuggle my little babe. I think he tried to step out of the bed and slipped on the pillows. Maybe that was not so smart of me to put pillows down on hardwood floors, duh...Its slippery. We will keep trying different things everyday, but at least he will start to get used to it!

Noah has adjusted quite well to having a little brother, he loves him to death and is not too jealous. He is always trying to give Silas his pacie and is constantly giving him kisses. When Silas is in his swing he tries to give him his toys and when he gets no response from Silas he just places it gently in the swing and goes to get a new toy and so on - it is really funny:)

He is such a sweet, good boy and I am so proud of him and how well he is doing:) Silas is so lucky to have such a great big brother:)

I tried the toddler bed again for his afternoon nap........
It was a success

Phat!

Ok so it was probably not a good idea for me to post a picture of me on my wedding day just three years ago.
"Oh, how skinny I was"!
Yes, I am feeling phat; I prefer to spell it with the PH - It looks and sounds so much better than FAT!
I know I had a baby ONLY 31/2 weeks ago but I feel so much phatter than I did after having Noah and I gained twice as much weight with Noah that with Silas.
"It takes 9 months to put the weight on it takes nine months to take it off", is what someone told me after having Noah - there is some truth to that a statement.
America is obsessed with weight and so I seem to be feeling the pressure to loose the weight. When I look back to my wedding picture I think
"oh what I would give to be that skinny again".
I do not so much care about what others may think of my weight, it is how I feel about myself. I am not comfortable with these extra pounds, physically comfortable not mentally comfortable.
So I ask myself; "am I going to do something about it or just sit on my phat ass and watch my yoga for weight loss tape while eating cookies:)
Starting Monday morning, yoga for weight loss will be playing on my TV, yoga mat out with me on it and the cookies are at the store not in my cabinet.
I know this will be good for me mentally and physically.

Eric, Silas and I on our anniversary - Noah would not cooperate for a picture

Oh how time flies when your having babies:)

Yesterday Eric and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. On Wednesday night Eric said he wanted to get burritos from the local Mexican restaurant for our anniversary dinner - sounded good to me.
He came home on Thursday and I asked him if he was going to get burritos, he said in a minute. He was playing with Noah and holding Silas so I began going through the mail. All of a sudden I hear someone opening our side door and come up the stairs -so I look at Eric and he acts like he hears nothing. So I go into the kitchen near the door to the basement to investigate and in walks my mom. I was so suprised I looked at her with a puzzled look and said
"Hi, what are you doing here"?
Mom - "you are going out to dinner, isn't that nice"?
Me - "oh, who is going out to dinner"
Eric - "You and I, honey"
Me - "oh, wow how nice, and you are watching the boys mom"?
Mom - "yes, now go change so you can get going and have a nice evening out"
I just stared at my mom for like 5 minutes so suprised you would have thought Ty Pennington was at my house.
I WAS TOTALLY SUPRISED!
It is not that Eric never surprises me with nice things; he does or should I say tries:)
For those of you who know me; know I am not one for surprise - it is very hard for anyone to plan a surprise for me as I always find out b/c I a m nosey and impatient:)
That was the best anniversary gift ever - it was so nice to go out for a surprise dinner with just Eric and I.
We had a fabulous dinner and talked all about the last three years and shared our favorite memories- that was fun, corny I know, but fun:)
I feel bad as I was ready to go by 8:30 - having just had a baby 3 weeks ago I could not find the energy in me to stay out later and enjoy the night - plus the boobs were telling me it was time to get home and feed Silas:) being such an great guy Eric understood and we headed home to continue the night with a little champagne!

As I look back on the last three years smiles and tears come pouring out. We have come so far as a couple and have grown so much together in our relationship and faith! I cannot imagine where I would be today without Eric and I am so grateful that God brought us together. I am who I am today because of Eric! God has been by our side these past three years and without our strong faith in him I am not sure we would be living such a privileged life! GOD IS GOOD!
What a fabulous three years it has been and I look forward to 50+ years with him:)

The boys hanging out

"I don't want to look at the camera"

"Fine i will look at the camera, but i am not taking the bottle out of my mouth"

All the little details

Ok so many of you have asked about the details of my labor. So here is a quick synopsis of it!

Lets just say it was fast and an all around good experience.
I started to have contractions around 4:30pm Tuesday after a nice morning and a lot of walking at the zoo with Eric and Noah.
After many false contractions I did not get my hopes up until around 8:30pm, I then stared to time them and stuck it out until 11:45pm, when I called my midwife and promised her this was the real thing:)

I then got myself ready and called my friend to come and watch Noah and headed out to the hospital around 1:30am Wednesday morning.

I was only 3cm dilated when I arrived at the hospital so my midwife had me walk the halls. She wanted me to do this for two hours but after 25 mins I could not walk anymore. My contractions were on top of one another and really strong.

My midwife checked me again at 3:45am and I was 5cm - they called for my epidural.
That was the worst part actually - the doc had a hard time putting in the catheter and I had a hard time sitting still as I was having strong, strong contractions. Once I received the epidural though I felt better, but almost immediately after getting the epidural I felt some extreme pressure - time to push is what I thought
My midwife checked me and I was at 8cm and it was only 4:30 So I went from 5cm to 8cm in a half hour. My midwife had said when I was at 5cm, "well juliana I expect a baby by 10am". How funny that within minutes it looked more like I would be having the baby by 7am
My mom and Joy were called and thankfully they made it just in time. I started to push around 5:30am and Silas was born at 6:40am.
It was a piece of cake, despite those ugly contractions, but thank goodness for the epidural.

My first days home with just the boys
Eric went back to work last Wednesday but my mom came around 2:30 so my first "real day" home with just the boys and I was Thursday and much to my surprise it was FABULOUS and Friday was even MORE FABULOUS. It was so much easier than I had ever thought.

Thankful I am blessed with a very sweet, laidback, and independent one and a half year old. NOAH HAS BEEN AWESOME - HE IS SO GOOD - IT MELTS MY HEART!
Silas is really good too - he is very laidback and sleeps well and is nursing just fine!
I have been very good with "letting things go" I am not as anal as I usually am - so that is good! I have only mopped the floors one and fro me that is a big deal:)
Hopefully things will continue to be this easy and only get better:)
Do not get me wrong I have had my hormonal breakdown, crying spell moments but for the most part they have been very limited. They are usually due to lack of sleep. So on that note I am off for a nap:)
Peace