Surprise! three plus one makes six...

introducing the newest Gabe, born Monday, June 25th at 4:14pm. 5lbs., 14 oz., 18" long. you'll have to check your email for the name, since we leave those off this blog for privacy reasons. but i'll tell you that he was named after two great and wonderful men. one i could never live without, and thank God for daily - most certainly for the way he has handled the ups and downs and surprises of the last week, the second has shaped and loved and led my side of the family for the last 82 years.






he wasn't scheduled to be here till July 3rd, but mom's sudden high blood pressure and a failing placenta made the Monday morning decision to bring him into the world another week earlier quite easy. we had five hours to get over the shock since surgery was scheduled late in the day, at least. we're home as of friday, getting used to each other, and all are doing just fine.

his nicknames, to date - i'll leave it to your imagination how each of them originated.

Barracuda Boy
One-Eyed Jack
Mighty Mike
Munchkin
Pipsqueak

gotta go. barracuda boy is hungry. again.



better pictures to come - this is all i had handy from my camera...

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

Little Dude celebrated his 4th birthday yesterday along with Father's Day. It was a good day - having all my men together (almost - we missed Uncle and Grandpa, but got to talk to them both on the phone).

We started the day with a family birthday breakfast and some presents from Mom, Dad and Grammie Jan. Then church and out to lunch for Father's Day, and back home again for more presents - this time from Uncle and Auntie - a new bike! It was a good day all around. Monday there will be cupcakes and party hats for 24 pre-schoolers...chocolate chip with yellow cake and a choice of vanilla or chocolate frosting, with sprinkles of course. Yum!

And yes, we're two weeks from Delivery Day - feeling good except for the swollen hands and feet. It's been very warm here, and my blood pressure is nice and low, so not much I can do to mitigate it except beg for foot rubs and stay off my feet. Frustrating, but at least we are down to the end! Yesterday at church the older ladies kept coming up to me and patting me on the cheek with this incredibly sympathetic look and saying things like: It'll be over soon, honey! I must look pitiful. My feet certainly do.

quote of the week...

Little Dude crawled into bed with me the other morning, stark naked from the waist down.

What gives? I asked. Where's your pj bottoms?

He says, his eyes wide with emphasis....

"The air conditioner came on and blew them right off!"

do bad things REALLY happen in threes?

i sure hope not.

but let's start first with our fabulous anniversary getaway weekend. he surprised me on thursday with the information that we would be leaving in the morning for Mendocino, to stay in a little B&B we visited several times BK (before kids). we haven't been back in five years, so it was a delightful reunion with innkeepers we know very well, as well as sun, ocean and wonderful food to boot. practically perfect in every way.

monday i was off to work and ended up in a car accident on the freeway. did you know that 911 will actually put you on hold while calling in an emergency? one is also unable, for whatever reason, to make any other cellular calls from that particular location. every attempt resulted in an insultingly loud BEEP and a "call failed" message. screaming in rage at your phone does no good - just so you know. it does however, scare other drivers. i gave up after three tries and over 10 minutes of being on hold, exchanged info with the other driver, and carefully steered my wounded honda to our local hospital.

much to my terror, immediately after the impact baby went very, very still (which is very, very unusual for this little guy) for a good half an hour. i was not taking my normal route to work, having just dropped husband off at the auto-body shop (such irony! we sure are good customers...).

trying to exit the freeway, i got lost in east scary-land. through tears and prayers, ended up on a familiar road, was able to get husband on phone, and he met me at my OB's office. just before we arrived, baby started to move a little, and i started breathing again. however, she sent us promptly over to Labor & Delivery because the heart rate was low. i then had the joy of a tech who wanted to "practice" hooking me up to the monitors, but kept exclaiming loudly "i just can't find the heartbeat!" had i not heard it 10 minutes beforehand at the doctor's office, i would have stood up on the bed and strangled her then and there.

shortly thereafter we were able to discern that baby was fine, but mom was having very regular contractions. two hours on the monitors determined they weren't going anywhere, just my uterus being "irritable" (you're telling me), and we were discharged with strict instructions to lay low and take it easy for at least a week. i guess i am at a higher risk for the placenta separating (= v. v. bad) due to the stress of the accident/seat belt + my former c-section. i pretty much slept for the rest of the day.

we won't be visiting my brother this weekend as planned - flying is forbidden for the next week - but we are very, very grateful it wasn't worse.

i would just like to state for the record that i very much hope that is the last time i rush to the hospital this week. twice in six days is a bit much, dontcha think?

inevitable...

so, i knew that this day would come eventually. every little boy under the age of five eventually ends up with a head wound. experiencing it, however, is nothing like trying to prepare for it.

last night Little Dude got smacked in the forehead with a door at preschool. i didn't have to witness it, nor see the blood (his teacher was pretty shaken up) but i was the lucky one who then got to take him to the ER. in their defence, they were lovely and took us straight back - we were in and out in an hour - and Little Dude thought the whole thing was really interesting, especially all the equipment and the beds that go up and down.

he even was amused by the full-body straight jacket they strapped him in to. and didn't mind when they draped a cloth over his face. he was still merrily reciting his numbers and ABC's to the Physician's Assistant while all this was going on. at that point, he couldn't see the giant syringe in the doctors hand until she whipped off the band-aid holding his cut together and injected two shots into the wound.

then the screaming started. and all i could do is pat the small portion of his knee that was exposed. the PA, trying to distract him, asked him if he could cound to 10 again for him. and the really pitiful thing was, he did.

sobbing "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10!!!!" more sobbing.

so the PA says - "can you count from 1 to 20?"

Little Dude, still sobbing, "one to twenty!!!"

the whole room busted up, and I even had to giggle through my own tears. smart kid!
as soon as the straight jacket came off, he needed about 30 seconds of hugs before he wanted off the table so he could look underneath and see what made it go up and down.

other than the two grisly black stitches in his forehead, he's fine. mommy was shaking until about 8pm...then fell asleep.

a friend suggested that they not only give out lollipops at the ER, but the mommies should get stickers to the effect of: Be nice to me today! I took my son to the ER last night!

an excellent idea!

progress!

the sheetrock started to go in on thursday. thought they would be done by saturday...but they decided to skip friday. saturday the last of it went in and we're hoping they'll deign to return this week to tape and texture. the joys of working with subs! but, at least progress is being made. i've got the paint picked out, friends have already promised to come by and help when the time comes. it's hard not to be impatient at this point! i love the views into the backyard, and in the morning, this room is flooded with light and is absolutely gorgeous. my new white desk will be such a pleasant place!

God Bless Blacksburg...

it's my hometown. i spent my first 7 years running around in the woods behind our house. it's the kind of town where little kids can do that, safely, and just be home for dinner. i took the school bus to school. we sledded down the center of our street in the winter. on the fourth of july, the entire town gathered on quilts and blankets and layed on our backs on the Virginia Tech drill field to watch fireworks. i learned to ice skate on the duck pond (see photo).

my dad worked in Norris Hall...first taking classes, later teaching. mom would pull up outside and I would trot in all by myself to fetch him at the end of the day.

to those of us with a connection to B'burg, this has all been a horror. i didn't realize, though, until yesterday when i saw all of the local flags at half mast, including those at my office, that the entire nation has been just as shaken. it's not just happening to me, but to all of us.

God bless the people Blacksburg, the students and the professors, and those that are left behind to figure out how to move onward. God bless those of us who are far away and feel helpless. God forbid that this evil overshadow the bucolic, happy memories we have of that wonderful town.

happy Easter!

just a few fun photos from our Easter with good friends. Little Dude definitely got the egg hunting/Easter bunny bit better this year and looked quite handsome in his suave linen shirt and khakis in honor of the day! although mommy would have been much happier had he been willing to wear the hip leather sandals grammie had bought rather than his beat-up Elmo sneakers, but what can you do?

holy belly, what is that in the corner??

how good we've got it

what do you do when you feel that tell-tale scratchy throat or burning nose? if you are like me, you run for the zinc lozenges and the airborne and more often than not, it clears up after a few days.

i haven't had a real out-and-out head cold in at least two years.

until last week.

i spent my fifth night on the couch last night, trying to "sleep" upright, coughing every few minutes. i ended up pulling a muscle in my side, so now every cough comes with a stab in the ribs.

i'm not very good with suffering. i'm not very good with pain. i want to go run and pop some pills or take some potion and make it go away. tolerating is not my forte. but, being that this body is currently housing other residents, i am not free to pollute it as i would normally and am reduced to meagre, ineffective remedies to cope with these symptoms.

i spent last week feeling angry and resentful. i was mad. i wasn't a very nice wife, and i wasn't a very nice mommy.

this week i'm trying to spend those wakeful hours in prayer asking for a quiet heart and courage amidst the suffering, and praying for others as well as myself. it's not even REAL suffering! there are so many who have faced true chronic pain, true illness, untreatable suffering and all i have is a silly little head cold and a cough. it's bound to be gone in a week or so.

what have i really got to complain about? not much.

i do know that when the day comes that i am able to sleep lying down, and actually sleep, without the punctuation of coughing every few seconds, for several hours at a stretch (i know that "through the night" is a long-distance dream!) i will recognize it as the gift it truly is!

simple things. gratitude. good.

then and now...

two years of cutie pie school photos to share with ya! happy friday!

the photo speaks for itself...

the gabes' labor camp continues...

remember that covered porch we had on the back of the house? it is no more, instead it has become an extension of the family room, almost doubling the usable space inside. i finally snapped a photo right of the project, as we finished up painting the new stucco. windows went in a few days later, so i'll post again soon. amazing how it just seems like it was always there, doesn't it? if you are wondering what else is missing - all the old concrete was removed late last summer, and the pergola and wisteria are also no more. i got voted off the island when it came to keeping the vine, and since it was what was holding up the pergola...you get the idea. the ladder is sitting just in front of the dining room slider. the plans are to install a 4-6' wide pergola across the entire back of the house running all the way to our bedroom on the opposite end, and a small breakfast porch off the dining room, with the main gathering area under the lemon trees outside the family room. lots of work to go, but progress is being made! we hope to move into the newly expanded room by the middle of april.

the very happy copilot...

God is great. i just love that Little Dude is getting some amazing experiences at such an early age, knowing that we are watching the fabric of his life and memory upon the loom. he had a great day with Papa on Sunday on a quick jaunt to the coast and back. the kid is going to know how to fly before he can drive at this rate...

as wild and crazy as he can be, seemingly unfocused and unpredictable, he takes his copilot role very seriously. he now helps tie and untie the plane, looping the ropes through the eyes, and holds the take off and landing checklist on his lap for Papa. he also knows that you "Never, never kick the yoke!"

Little Dude Quote of the Day

Little Dude was getting into my toiletries this morning and to keep him away from stuff that could spill, I gave him a black headband to play with. He walked around for a while with it on his head, and then brought it forward over his eyes and solemnly looked up at me and said (I swear, I did not prompt this at all!)

"Captain, there's no one here!"

out of (or in) the mouths of babes...

so, Little Dude's school just called. they always preface the call with "he's fine!" since, as like other parents, my first instinct is that he's ill or hurt. however, they went on to tell me that they are having to write up an incident report...they caught him drinking out of...

the urinal.

ewwwww. it was evidentally flushing and he saw it as a good opportunity to quench his thirst. was kinda baffled when his teacher made such a big deal out of it. this is a story we're going to hold over this head when he's a teenager, dontcha think?

time flies...

is this not the cutest thing you have ever seen? as we prepare, mentally at least, to have a new baby in the house again, it's nice to be reminded of just how fleeting those precious days were. when our little one was small enough to tote about on a hip, with rolls of chub to pinch and squeeze; discovering every new thing with delight. the tall, lanky, tousle-haired boy before me bears only slight resemblance to this little babe...except in the dead of night, buried under his soft blankie (in the very beginning, he called it his "kinky") making his sweet snuffles as I nuzzle his damp forehead.

that is when he looks exactly the same to me.

(we really must give snaps to that precious dog, who tolerated with such patience the little exploring fingers that pulled her ears and poked her eyes. she was always still as a statue until she couldn't take it anymore and scurried away to a safer locale. my fondest memory was hearing her whimper, and looking over found our babe with one of her cheek jowls in each hand gleefully yanking upon them both. she didn't budge, just pleaded with her eyes and a slight whine for rescue.)

every blessing You pour out...

I turn back to praise!

This was our family song for the weekend. A wonderful, relaxing, fun-filled, three-day weekend. Blessed be the name of the Lord! Amazing how you grow to appreciate the little things...I worked our annual sales conference last week that culminated in three 14-hour work days. I barely saw my boys, and was exhausted and running on only 7 hours sleep a night (not nearly enough while preggers...).

Friday began the blessings when my big guy was able to drive me to work that morning (nothing like being chauffeured and sipping coffee on the way to work!) and then later joined me at our closing dinner (and driving the 45 minutes home!). Even though it was another late night, it's some how not as much"work" when your honey is there with you, getting you more Pelegrino and lime, or making your after-dinner coffee just how you like it while you work the room.

Saturday morning I got to stay in bed till I WANTED to get up. I laid awake for a bit and just reveled in my squishy pillow-top mattress and my fortress of pillows (I'm up to four these days). Then I got up and watched cartoons in my pj's with another little guy in his pj's and drank coffee until I felt like it. What a gift!

Took naps every day, went on a walk with a small boy on a tricycle, replanted three roses and bumbled about the yard in the warm sunshine, got my hair cut, drove with the sunroof open, went to the movies as a family, slept in as late as I wanted to, finally managed not only to choose new bathroom tile but ordered it as well, made dinner while the boys made train tracks on the floor and danced to 80's music.

It was just such a blessed three days! That song was playing on the radio while we were out and about as a family on Saturday morning, and Little Dude continued to request it every time we were in the car the rest of the weekend. Happy to oblige!

Here's to the blessing of "little things".

life is short...eat more chicken mcnuggets!

i realized that while i was feeling so sick over the holidays, i had fallen into the habit of rushing...rushing through the morning routine, rushing through the bedtime routine, rushing through dinner.

in a flash, i realized that i was overlooking a great and precious gift! my days with just one boy in my life are short!

soon i will no longer be able to give him my undivided attention. there will be another little person with whom to divide my time. the thought made me rather sad...not sad to have two boys, just sad that the days of being with my only son are numbered.

so, this week has been about slowing down. let's read three books before bedtime instead of two. i made an excellent "gold-fish pond" out of peas and bits of carrot over the weekend. so what if i arrive at work 30 minutes later than usual? we had a great time "hiding" under the covers and an excellent tickle-fest (Little Dude is the only ticklish person i know that LIKES to be tickled. when you stop, he yells "again!" then when he tickles me he wiggles his fingers on my shoulder or elbow and says "laugh mommy! i'm tickling you!"). last night we went to dinner as a family at McDonald's. not exactly mom and dad's first choice for eating out, but Little Dude sure seemed to enjoy it. and i really enjoyed watching him be happy. he's very generous with his french fries, too.

i know that my heart will grow to love two boys instead of just one (it already is), and we'll make time so that he still feels important, but i'll miss the days of just hanging out with Little Dude. i'm glad i have a few more months, and i'm glad God reminded me to take it a bit slower. these days are precious!

quote of the week: upon breaking a new toy...he brought it sadly over to my Dad saying..."Papa, I have a sad surprise for you!"


photo: a Gabe breakfast tradition - peanut butter toast!

from the mouths of little boys...

"Hey Little Dude...guess what?! You're going to have a baby brother! Isn't that great?"

long pause....

"Can we have meatballs for dinner?"






"Hey Little Dude, I heard that you're going to have a baby brother!"

"No, a baby sister. Her name is Ginger."

"I thought your Mommy said it was going to be a boy?"

"No, I changed my mind."



And lastly, how do smart mommies get little boys to eat their green beans? They build things...this one I'm particularly proud of. It's a bridge, complete with cars on the bridge and boats around it. Last night I made a picket fence with squirrels on it...they usually vanish in about five minutes. : )

Happy is she whose son eats his veggies...

It's a.....!

I bet you all are dying to know, aren't you? Yep, we found out what we are having. Is it a boy or a girl, you ask? Is Little Dude going to get a pesky kid sister, or a baby brother to torture?

I haven't had a chance to scan the photos yet. Wouldn't it be much nicer to SEE the pictures when you find out what little Baby Gabe is going to be?

Yes, you say?

Ok, we'll wait till we have the photos up. Such sweet pictures...the tiny little profile. A perfect little spine. His wee little hands up by his face.

Oops.

; )