Blueberry picking and so much more

The last 14 days have been an absolute whirlwind. I can't tell you how much I have been stressing out about giving Max attention. I didn't want him to think that we had abandoned him. I have been dealing with emotions that never occured to me. I was ready for the hormonal surge and the learning curve of a new baby and trying to get her to nurse. What I wasn't ready for, was how much I would be mourning the loss of my relationship with my first born. I love Isabel but I feel like I am leaving him behind. I am so grateful for having my mom here to help with Max and Isabel. I know eventually I will have to do everything on my own but, right now I am taking advantage of all the help.

I am finding little bits of time to devote to Max and trying to keep things as they were before. Storytime, snuggle time, play park time, I just want to continue to give him the structure that children his age need. It is hard, but as time goes on I think that things will get a little easier. Once Isabel is on a more regular schedule, I think, I might be able to have more time for loving on my bestest boy! At least that is my goal.

So here are some great pictures of the last 2 weeks, starting with blueberry picking.

 "the dark blue ones Max, only pick the dark blue ones!"

 Gramma picking with Isabel to give Max and I some time to bond.

 Max picked the aisles, I just followed behind adding to his blueberries.

 Sitting down and having a moment. He also did great with potty training and had no accidents. Thank heavens for spiffy biffy's!

 Having a blueberry picnic! True to form he hasn't eaten any since we have been back home. Only when we pick.

This is a picture of Isabel at only 3 days old. Max just gave her some of his toys to play with when he went up to have his nap. What a great big brother! Little does she know that he may share, but he directs how we play.

 A couple of very wise friends have gotten Max some gifts to show him that he is special too. Thanks so much to Nana C, also known as Cheryl Anderson for the awesome tow truck and Jen and Benji Bollinger for the airplane kit. Max has put it together and painted it with daddy. A real bonding experience for both of them.

He was so concentrated on the painting. Max also got another kit from Gramma. A biplane this time. He has done an awesome job with both.

 Isabel's 1st bath. A real family affair. I am the only one who doesn't have my hands in her bath. Max did a great job helping to wash and rinse her.

 Such a tiny little bundle.

 After Isabel's bath Max decided to relive his babyhood. He took a bath downstairs also. It was super cute.

Gramma and the grand babies. She couldn't be happier and Max is really enjoying having her around. She even gets down and plays race cars on his rug. She has been spoiling him with love, treats and presents. What do I do with him once she is gone? A hard act to follow!

Will post more soon. I have a back log of posts from before Isabel came.

 

Hello Baby Isabel...life changing day #2

I wasn't even sure I was actually having contraction, they were so erratic, but by 3AM it was pretty obvious the baby Isabel would not make it to her due date. She is probably setting a precedant and me being so type A and needing to plan everything...I guess there are some changes coming in my future. Isn't that what your children are supposed to do? Change us for the better, right? Let's hope so!!

So here she is with her big brother, Isabel Sofia Ximena Jones, 7 pounds 7 ounces and 19 inches long, born on July 23rd at 8:53AM.

This is big brother Max with Isabel. Every single person who came into the room heard him say, "this is my baby sister."  He absolutely LOVES her!

A little background on the whole birth process. Last Thursday I allowed my Doctor to "strip my membranes," at 2 cm dilated, in an effort to not go past my due date. I guess it encouraged a little forward momentum instead.  The contractions started around midnight, Sunday night, Monday morning, but they were so erratic I wasn't even sure I was in labor. By 3AM I figured it out and we packed up and headed out to the hospital. At that point the contractions were 4 minutes apart and lasting about 2 minutes. We sped down to the hospital and were checked right in. I got ever so lucky...and had a nurse that had 4 children all naturally and felt that we should try for the same thing with this childbirth.

As the contractions got harder and I asked for an epidural, in my mind I knew there would be hesitation. By 7:30AM I told Terry I was ready for drugs and I am sure she "filed" the request. My doctor showed up shortly after and broke my water, as I hadn't done that yet. I was only dilated to 5 by then. I waited and waited for the anesthesiologist and he arrived somewhere around 8:30AM.  I still felt EVERYTHING and kept asking when it would start to work. "Almost there" is what I kept hearing.

 Waiting...waiting...waiting...OOOOOOUUUUUUCH!!!!! The contractions were becoming increasingly stronger and I was exhausted during the 30 seconds inbetween. By the time he finally got me wired up I had the uncontrollable urge to push and made it pretty clear that is what I was going to do. I had one involuntary push, heard the nurse say we needed the doctor and a baby nurse, and I knew something was happening. I shifted in the bed to the right position and pushed all while screaming bloody murder. Saw the doctor come in with a look of hurried panic, gown and glove up, and pushed again and she was out. HOLY CRAP!!! That really hurt! Where the hell was my epidural?

(Appearently in active labor it takes about 20 minutes for the drugs to have there desired effect. That is what the anesthesiologist told me this morning when he came by to apoligize for his losing his battle to mother nature. Awfully kind of him to acknowledge the boo boo. Does this mean we still have to pay him?)

So anyway, pretty much a natural child birth. She was ready!

So now here are a couple of fresh pictures.

 This is my, wht aren't you cleaning her up before you give her to me, expression.

That, and pure exhaustion and delight!

This is me pushing out the placenta. I call it my Mick Jagger face. You will notice the "natural nazi" nurse turning off the epidural drip in the background! Thanks for nothing!!!

The rest are just great pictures of the last 2 days after Miss Isabel arrived.

 A bathing beauty under the lights of the bassinet after her bath, finally. We can't get over how much she looks like Max did when he was born.

 She even has Maxwell's bum! And look at that head of dark hair!!

 Max with Aunty Joyce and Isabel. Joyce was amazing and came to the hospital at 4:30AM to pick up Max and watch him for us while we had Isabel. He had a blast with her and his doggy friend Hana.  Thanks sooooo much Aunty Joyce. We love you!

 Our new bigger, happier family.

Daddy and Miss Isabel having a much needed nap.

 Max loving on his baby sister. I can not tell you how good he is with her right now. Hopefully it stays that way.

Giving her kisses for the millionth time!!

I wanted to end on one of Max's glory moments. As we have been doing really well with potty training, it is hard for me to leave Max in diapers for any length of time. The last 2 days have been a real test. I didn't want to have Aunty Joyce and the many distractions getting in the way of his experiencing everything. He has pretty consistently lived up to the challenge. He told Joyce several times that he needed to go potty and she happily obliged, stripping off the diaper and putting the dry diaper back on. He even proved what a big boy he was when he came back to the hospital this morning. He went into the bathroom by himself, stripped down and went potty!!

You go big brother!!

We are all home now. Safe and sound. Even Gramma is here so there will be lost of adventures to tell everyone about real soon! Thanks for all the well wishes and stay tuned.

Safety Day at the Museum

We went to the Museum of Flight last Friday for Kids Safety Day. It was loads of fun! We started out outside in the parking lot and I was completely unprepared for the day. When we left the house it wasn't that ugly outside. By the time we got to the museum it was raining cats and dogs, goats and frogs. Max was still happy to be there and see all the fire trucks. We got loads of new coloring books about fire safety and Smokey Bear and a new fire hat. He loved walking around looking at the fire trucks, getting to go inside an ambulance and the swift water rescue raft. The rain didn't bother him at all. A true Washingtonian.

By the time we made it into the museum we were all soaked to the bone and Max was on fire. He ran around looking and touching everything. I have never seen him so fired up. Terry was kind of suprised by his exhuberance also.

 Max and daddy as firefighters! Aren't they a handsome pair?

 Flying a plane in the kids zone.

Flying a helicopter and loving it.

Never again will I leave the house without the proper gear and fully prepared. I am hoping that summer actually arrives and I won't need to worry about it. On the plus side, Max didn't even seem to realize that anything was amiss, so once again it is all me and my issue and needing to learn to roll with the punches.

Happy Father's Day

Okay, okay, so I am a little late, but I am not a slave to the calender. Besides we have been far to busy!! Here is part of Terry's Father's Day gift.

I can't wait to see what fun I have next year putting something together.

Happy Father's Day Daddy! You are the bestest!

Father's Day Campout

This year in honor of Father's Day we went camping! Daddy has been chomping at the bit to try out our new tent and when the campground at Lake Kachess finally opened for the season we were there. Camping with Terry is great because I don't have to do anything really. It is like a mini vacation for me because he does all the camp set-up, cooking and cleaning. I love it!! My work usually consists of making sure we have everything before we leave the house, supply wise, and packing up the food and clothes.

The weather was going to be kind of hit or miss but I was mostly prepared. As long as Max is covered, I figure I can live with only one pair of socks for 3 days and no shower. Max really enjoys the camping experience also. He got much more into this year, then last year at the ocean. We had a blast! As an added bonus, Uncle Mike, our former neighbor, joined us. It was great to have him along for company.

Our first day we arrived a little later then we expected and after setting up, Max and I tried to have a little nap. He wasn't having any of it. Way to much to see and do and he just knew he was missing out on something. Max is a little man that regularly naps 2 to 3 hours a day, so I was a little concerned by this lack of sleep. He was a trooper though. There were a few hiccups throughout the afternoon but for the most part he did pretty well. The weather was mildly uncooperative and that may have been some of his frustration. As were some of the safety rules of being near the fire pit and wood chopping. Overall, all three of us were pretty impressed with his no nap attitude. I, however was determined to make sure he napped the second for fear of sensory overload and total meltdown.

We had an awesome campsite with a path that lead right to the lake and had some nice shady and open sunny areas, when there was sun. It really was the perfect spot. Daddy and Max had scouted it out a couple of weeks before hand and picked it out special. Excellent job Daddy.

 Making Daddy work down by the Lake.

 Uncle Mike being super protective of Max while Daddy shows off how to chop fire wood. They really are not as close as they seem in the photo. Max did always want to be right up in the action though.

 Collecting kindling and bringing it to Uncle Mike, who was the official firestarter. Max loved having a job to do and always wanted to help out.

 First night treat! Jiffy pop! Max loves popcorn. Here is the happy boy sitting in his new Lightening McQueen chair. He thought having his own little chair was great.

 Using "Molly Hatchet," to show Daddy and Uncle Mike how it is done. Don't worry Gramma, it is duller then dull!!

 Max's favorite mode of transportation, riding on Daddy's head! He is wearing daddy's hat and "steering" him with his ears. Pretty comical!

Carbon Creek. According to a friend with a house out there, the bridge washed out a few years ago and they have yet to replace it. It was a short but nice hike all the same. Someone else told us that if you follow this specific trail around the Lake it comes to an old mine and there are lots of quartz crystals in the water around the area.

Curious if anyone knows what this plant is. It was all over the campground.

 Amazing star-like clusters of flowers on a Liatris like stem with a grassy base. No fragrance but growing in sunny and shady areas. The flower stood about 18 inches tall.

 Max and I lounging in the hammock Daddy got us as a suprise! Thank goodness for looooooong rope! We put it between the 2 closest trees.

 Daddy being goofy! Max's laugh could be heard for miles.

We had such and amazing time and want to go back for more. I am hoping for better weather, as it intermittently rained on us the entire time we were there. Thinking about trying it after the baby comes if summer holds on until the end of September. Since summer hasn't actually gotten here yet, we might be in luck.

Just a few words about Terry. He really shines when he is out in this kind of environment. Now having Max with us he becomes such a good teacher and guides Max's any interest. He gets down on his level and explains everything using real words and ideas. Max is now starting the "how does it work" phase of asking a million questions and Terry is right there to answer them to the best of his ability. I love watching them together. They are like 2 peas in a pod. He really is a great dad and often times has much more patience then I do. I can't wait to see what a little girl brings out in him. He won't know what hit him!! 

Zoo Day

We have been so lucky to have daddy off of school for the last 3 weeks. He did AMAZING and earned a 4.0 for this past quarter!! Dean's List again!! Way to go daddy! We are so proud of you!

Anyway, we have tried to stay busy and do lots of fun things while it is just the three of us, before the little sister arrives. We took the opportunity to go to the zoo last week, on one of the nicer days and let Max run wild. At least that was what we wanted him to do. It turns out he really likes "riding on daddy's head," instead. There were several 2 year old toddler moments when he wouldn't even walk, not even a little!  More then a little frustrating when the plan is to tire him out. We managed to get some great pictures though.

 We have been calling Max, silly monkey, for a while now. Mostly because he likes to hang on the bars at the park and climb on to the kitchen counter and anything else he can find.  So this photo op seemed appropriate.

He climbed up on to this silver back statue with no assistance from mom or dad.

 At the petting zoo area, the goats were being lazy in the sun, so Max had a great hands on opportunity to pet them. Not exactly sure why he has such a concerned look on his face. He did seem to enjoy petting him though.

As we were walking to go get lunch, from on top of daddys shoulders, Max started freaking out. He kept saying back, back, back. We hadn't even seen what he was so excited about at first. Once we back tracked, we got it. He loves bubbles. They had a huge vat of super bubble soap out and were letting the kids try to make bubbles. Max did a couple, but daddy was a rock star! Better then the volunteers working the bubble area!

On our way out we stopped by the Humboldt Penguin exhibit again and Max spotted a little boy sitting in one of the visual bubbles watching for the birds. He slyly snuck up and squeezed himself onto the same spot. The boy is just now figuring it out and climbs over Max to get away. We thought it was kind of cute. I guess the other little boy didn't appreciate it the intrusion.

 

It was a nice day and we hope to have a few more trips to the zoo in this summer. There is so much to see there and we rarely make it to everything before we have leave to get home in time for a nap. As it was, on this particular afternoon Max did not fall asleep in the car, as usual, but was still awake when we got home at 3pm. More on napping in the next post.

 

Play Date with Jake

Not only does it seem like forever since I posted to the blog, it seems like forever since Bridget and I have been able to get the boys together to play. Weather and schedules and mostly the weather have made it challenging. We like going to outdoor places to let them run around and get some energy out. Obviously winter in Washington makes those "good days," few and far between. Neither one of us want to deal with wet, muddy, little men.

We finally got together last week at Luther Burbank Park on Mercer Island. They have a great play area and some hiking paths. The boys love, love, love the fire truck. One of Max's favorite things is spraying out fires. He pretends to put out fires with everything, it doesn't even need to look like a hose to be used.

Here are some excellent pictures of the boys.

Following the leader. Max kept calling this a slide, even though there are real actual slides at the park.

 Max is always interested in the snacks Jake has. I can usually count on him to try something new. Peer pressure can be a good thing at this age. Bless Bridget for always having good stuff. On this afternoon, Max was more interested in Jake's lunch box.

Bridget, always a good sport, playing the lone customer at Max and Jake's restuarant. She would place an order. They would keep handing her pinecones and rocks that she pretended to eat. It was great!!

 Max loves Bridget! He would only hold her hand when we walked back to the car to leave. It even made Jake a little jealous. Bridget says Jake never wants to hold her hand anymore. Like I said, peer pressure can be a wonderful thing at this age.

Jake, a very happy, handsome little man! I will say it again Bridget, we are excellent bakers!!

Hopefully now that summer is here, it is here right, we will be able to get the boys together a little more often. Bridget and I even got to catch up a little. Ususally the boys don't actually play together and we never see each other or only in passing. They are a little more interactive with each other now and it was wonderful to be able to actually talk, bounce ideas, concerns and just have a general conversation with her. Lets do it again soon!