10 weeks old

 our bald little guy sometimes reminds me of daddy warbucks, without the cash of course. For the past few weeks he's been a happy sweet baby & I'm so grateful b/c the first two months were long and sleepless...may have something to do with a dairy/soy sensitivity.

 His cheeks are a firm chubby, & at times his double chin can make him look like Jiminy Cricket
He smiles whenever you talk to him
He likes to make lots of bubbles on his mouth and Tessa refers to this as 'boiling'
He cannot hang out on a blanket on the floor b/c Thomas instantly wants to lay on him like he does with his sisters (we call him Thomas the tank for good reason)
We are so grateful for this little big blessing to be in our lives and complete our family.

The Lovely days of May

 I wish my secretary could pull out the picture from 6 or 7 years ago to compare when Liza, Summer, & Tessa were just chubby little toddlers running around this slide

Let's just say that the first 2 months of his life will be a blur b/c of tiredness but here he is showing huge improvement in his sleeping habits

 The girls have a rule that only during the time that Thomas naps can they plan their own american girl tea party

 thomas has his own rules to live by too...

'CLOTHESING' IN ON ME!

Jody came to save visit us and guess what she labeled me as...

a CLOTHES HOARDER!!!

The nerve, the audacity, so harsh but so

true.

pictures of my laundry room before she even arrived, I took these shots so I would motivate myself to work for the 'after' shot of an empty room-clothes washed & put away

in the picture below please notice the bins in the background  (she is also cleaning up baby boy at the same time while lecturing me)

 Little did I know that Jody would instead have me give them all away rather than waste my time in the laundry room.

 We gave away about 12 large, very full bags of clothes & shoes. She's tough I tell you. She wouldn't put up with any whining, whimpering, justification or pouting. No longer could I hold on to items that Amelia would grow into b/c no girl needs 3 of the same dresses & she would not allow me to hold onto any pants with the knees too worn (Summer hid her favorite jeans that had two big holes in the knees) I believe Summer & Tessa play on their knees during recess. She also would not let me hold on to any ugly t-shirts no matter what name brand they were. A friend with 2 girls was very happy to fill 2 trash bags of treasures & Goodwill got the rest. It was tough. It was real. It was tiring. But I hope to one day be a recovered clothes hoarder. 

 She did reward me with my favorite cookies

 and thee best chocolate cake ever...really, I mean it

and homemade chicken fried steak, it rocked so I advise you to pressure her to put all these recipes on her blog immediately.

Thanks for my new life nanny McJody. Although I still need you.

What were we thinking that we could actually plan around a forced due date? OH well, it was a fun week to gain an extra 3 pounds and having Tammy with me kept any disappointment or depression far far away.
We set an induction date 5 days before actual due date so we got Tammy a plane ticket 2 days before that so we could play & go out to lunch before she would be stuck at home with me and new baby but instead we had to make a new induction date for a week later b/c I wasn't even close to dilating so we kept busy in and out of the house. Experimented with Coke to clean off the hard water stains from our water dispenser...it worked

Amelia finally had someone to play kitties with her on the floor

finished reupholstering the dining room chairs

This is Tammy's idea of a planned breakfast (slightly different than my moms :)

mopping floors for exercise

Arrived at the hospital 8am

Mom flew in to town at 10:30am & was happy to rub it in that it was not her that was in labor

and Tammy was quite happy about that as well

but by 11pm she was getting a little tired, she tried to blame it on her age. Thank goodness she lasted another 53 minutes to see the face of her newest grand baby...I have the sweetest picture of my mom crying but if I posted it she would disown me :)

but I can show Tammy's red eyes with a smile

he may have been the longest labor but his delivery was the shortest with only 2 pushes and just like that he had finally arrived & was very content once he was perfectly swaddled

Lots of oooh's and awww's from these little people

Thomas made sure his aunt would not forget about him so he gave her plenty of kisses

It was sad that she only had a few moments with Reid before she had to fly back home but so grateful she got to witness his birth

one of the few moments my Mom got to sit down...she was hopping or running the whole week long & she spoiled me with healthy meals at my bedside & the girls miss getting notes in their lunches

We love staring at him b/c he is the cutest miniature person we have around here & he gives us the funniest little old man looks & when he stretches out his legs he always toots...that's great entertainment around here

Let's have a little Ketchup...

time to get these pictures out of hiding (Posts will be out of order but I'm sure Tammy will be patient with me) 

 Daddy, Reid, and Eliza getting a little rock a bye before bed

 Aunt Laura came to the rescue for week 2 of recovery (or basically keeping my other children alive by feeding them :) Jody had to cancel to have emergency eye surgery so Laura answered James pleading phone call with a quick "yes"...Thank heavens!

 Thomas is all about the smooches

 He was so spoiled with love that he had no time to be jealous of a new baby

Our sweet new baby is a happy little guy when he's held or being fed which is why my eyeballs ache with tiredness...can't wait til he's on a predictable schedule!