Luke's Birthday

A little more backpedaling, but I really wanted to do a quick update on Luke.

We were so blessed to have family come into town in February to celebrate Luke's birthday. We had many friends over too. I had a blast planning Luke's first friends-included birthday party. We went all out with a vintage airplane theme this year. Nick was amazing on the day of the party with helping me set up (and he also helped me clean the week prior, since I was 8 months pregnant and exhausted all the time). Here are my favorite pictures from the day.

Some other updates on Luke:

• His new favorite is Curious George. We watch a lot of it. He laughs. I roll my eyes a lot. But it keeps him happy and busy while I'm nursing Kellen. 
• We also watch a lot of Frozen. Perhaps this is my influence. I love that Disney. I love princesses. I'll never have little girls. So we watch Frozen and talk a lot about Olaf, the snowman. I mean, there is a huge snow monster in the movie. How much more boy-ish can it get?! 
• Luke has started singing along to songs (or at least trying). He doesn't say the correct words, but he sings along just the same. I love that. He's so proud of himself! 
• I just sent in our deposit for Luke's preschool program, starting in September. He's going to love it and will learn so much. How is it possible that I'm preparing him for school already?
• Luke has started to pay more and more with cars, trucks, tractors... basically anything on two wheels. He is having a blast. It's been so interesting to me to see Luke go from playing as a kid to playing as a boy. 
• I now let my biggest little go outside by himself. We have a fenced in yard, and he plays outside on his own everyday for hours. He loves collecting leaves, playing with sidewalk chalk, on the slide, on the swing, with his shovel. I'm glad he enjoys playing on his own for a while. It's fun to see him find different things to do. I can only imagine what's going on through his mind.

Introducing... Kellen James!

Months and months have gone by since my last post. The last trimester of my pregnancy was the toughest on me. I was so drained, simply trying to keep up with Luke. Any spare moment I had (read: naptime) was spent in bed resting. We got the nursery accomplished just weeks (or rather a week) before baby boy arrived. I planned a major birthday party for Luke, which was perhaps not my best decision, but we had tons of fun. Finally... I feel energized (though still getting very little sleep) and have my feet under me again.

My sweet Kellen arrived on a Saturday night, March 22. I was so ready by the last weeks of my pregnancy. Fortunately I wasn't diagnosed with Cholestasis again, but having prepared myself for it, I was ready for Kellen at 37 weeks, since that's when I would have been induced. After learning I wouldn't be induced (unless I went past my due date), I started having a lot of anxiety. How could we plan to go to the hospital? What-if we couldn't find someone to watch Luke? When should I pack my hospital bag? The list of questions went on and on.

But I did go into labor. Saturday I woke up and just felt crummy. Luke and I laid around and watched a lot of Elmo that day. I was feeling super emotional. Is it happening? Should Mom come up? Should Nick come home from work?! I finally made the decision to go to the hospital, fully expecting to be sent home. I was contracting every 2 minutes when we walked through the hospital doors. Perfect timing!

My sweet Kellen arrived at 10:10 that evening. He was perfect. Big! And an awesome eater. Nick and I knew what we were doing. It was all still a tiring experience, but we felt so comfortable with our new little bundle.

Kellen continues to be an amazing baby. He goes with the flow, but I suppose any second child has to adjust to napping on the go. He's an amazing eater and has turned into a little chunk! Luke was always skinny, so it's been really fun to see Kellen thrive on breastmilk and grow so rapidly.

My littlest little enjoys eating so much, he's still not much of a sleeper. I'm attempting to get him on a schedule in the evenings and at night. We just moved him to his own bedroom (two nights down!) and that seems to be helping. Perhaps he just outgrew the bassinet attachment on our Pack N Play. Fortunately, Luke still naps 3 hours most days and I can often get Kellen down for some of that time and sneak in a short nap too.

Our biggest milestone so far is that Kellen rolled over for the first time (tummy to back) just shy of a month old on April 21. He has a very strong neck and we've been practicing a lot of tummy time and standing.

Luke adores his little brother and loves laying on the floor with Kellen. Often he goes looking for the baby when he wakes up in the morning and from nap. I've been so impressed with my biggest little. Luke has made this transition very easy for me. And Curious George has also helped. Luke keeps pretty happy while I nurse!

I'm so glad to be a mommy to the sweetest little boys. I'm trying to treasure every moment (and capture the moments with my iPhone as often as possible) since we're planning to parent just two littles. Kellen will be our last baby (unless something major changes in the future). My soul rejoices that he is growing so fast, but my heart aches to see my newborn growing up.

Kellen just 12 hours old. My dear friend Laura (a brilliant photographer) came to the hospital to meet Kellen and capture the first hours of his life. I'm so glad she came and was able to capture some beautiful images.