Little Photographer

Camden has become quite the little photographer these days. He has really been into taking pictures of his toys. I am not against anything giving me a five minute break to try to get something done. I give him the camera and he has at it. Here are a few of his best shots (out of 100). I really like the first one. It looks like he set up his toys for the picture and they are smiling for the camera. It's just too cute!

Action shot, must be some monster truck rally.

This must be a candid shot, cars not looking .

October

October was a better month. We really started getting use to the idea of having two kids. Nolan started sleeping longer stretches, and I didn't feel so tired. All of our meals ended at the end of September (we were so blessed with so many good meals) so I had to find a routine with two kids that included cooking dinner. Steven took a trip to Houston in October, just for the weekend. He got to witness a good friend of his get married and I was glad he got to go. I was also very glad that my mom (Nana) and her soon to be husband (Grandpa Steve) came to stay with me and help. I was not ready to be alone with my two babies. I was so grateful they came because I ended up getting mastitis and couldn't get out of bed. They really took care of things for me, and Nolan was still sleeping most of the time so that really helped. The month got off to a rocky start but ended much better.

Here is Nana and Grandpa Steve with Camden. They took him to a wedding down at Point Defiance Park. They were gone for the day, so I got to spend that time catching up on my sleep.

They all look so good!

Next on the list was our first big family outing to the pumpkin patch. It was so fun. We visited a farm that had so many fun for Camden to do. He picked a great pumpkin and we got some great pictures. Here are just a few.

He takes the job of holding his brother very seriously.

Meet the two newest members in our family. Nolan, and my mom's fiance Grandpa Steve. He will officially become part of our family on February 13th. He has been a really good Grandpa already.

My Grandpa took the opportunity to visit us from California. He really came to meet his newest great grandson Nolan. Camden couldn't get enough of him. It was really cute. On this night we had dinner at my mom's, Camden got out of his chair that was between Steven and myself. He got a different chair and pulled it up to his Grandpa Bob and insisted on eating his dinner next to him.

We had to get a picture of Grandpa Bob with all of his great grand kids.

It was really good to see him.

Can you find the sleeping baby among the mess?

We enjoyed many Halloween festivities this year. The first was to go to my mom's work and let the kids trick or treat. This was Camden's very first year that he got to pick his own costume. He chose to be a doctor, so before we went trick or treating he had to give his Nana a physical.

Nolan got very hot in his pumpkin outfit.

On Halloween night we headed up to my sister's house for dinner and some more fun. She served a great dinner. Then we were able to take the kids (in the pouring down rain) for some trick or treating. They didn't seem to mind it was raining at all.

Here they are before they went out together.

Camden and his cousin Ava.

October was a better month, and it ended with Nolan smiling more and more. I think there are going to be some fun days ahead.

September

After weeks of having trouble with blogger, and then realizing the problem was with me, I am finally able to update my blog. Now that it's November I plan to give you a general overview of our life of a family of four so far. So we will begin with the month of September.

September was pretty much a blurr. We were in full survival mode. We were fortunate to have help for three weeks after Nolan was born. We have a great family and everyone really pulled together for us. Our birth and recovery was not what we had planned on but we got through it. With all of the help gone we were happy to see what life was like as a family of four.

One of the big events of the month was celebrating Steven's 3- birthday. He happened to be traveling for work on his actual birthday, but we made sure we celebrated him when he was home.

Here he is watching football with two of his three favorite people.

Getting started on tummy time is so important.

Snuggling with mommy is always good.

We just love his chubby cheeks.

Hanging out with big brother.

He really does love his brother.

All in all it was a good month but we are glad it's over.

Extended Hospital Stay

At 34 hours of life we learned that Nolan's jaundice levels were high and we needed to start photo therapy as soon as possible. He started out on a bili bed in our room and spent the night on the lights. The next morning another blood test was taken and his level was even higher...

...so we moved up to the big lights. I was discharged on Tuesday and Nolan was admitted to the Infant Special Care Unit (ISCU) at Swedish the same day. He was put in an incubator and put under intense photo therapy lights. We moved in with him and waited. His levels moved back down, but very slowly.

The high light of our day was Camden coming to visit his brother. He really does love him.

We spent the week resting and taking care of Nolan while waiting and waiting for his levels to move down to a safer level. Caring for him was difficult at times. We could only have him out of the lights for twenty minutes every three hours. We spent that time feeding him. Diaper changes were mostly done while he was in his incubator.

The only time I got to hold him was during his feedings.

His level finally went down low enough for us to take him off the lights. We did have to wait six hours before taking him home to make sure he didn't rebound. Here he is sleeping so soundly without his sunglasses.

A week after we checked in (almost to the minute) we got to check out and take Nolan home.

It was good to be back home.

Nolan Elliot

It's been a wonderful and busy summer that I am not even going to attempt to catch everyone up on. So I Will start with the birth of our second precious son. Nolan Elliott came to us a little earlier than expected. I was 37 weeks and three days when my water broke. It was a slow trickle just as we were heading out the door to go to run errands. Our Sunday plans quickly changed. My mom headed straight over and we took the opportunity to get a couple of family pictures before heading off to the hospital. My contractions were slow to start so I wasn't in much pain.

Getting evaluated in triage before getting admitted. Still not in a lot of pain.

Just had a jacuzzi bath while my contractions picked up. Still managing a smile.

OK, now I am in pain and my epidural is not taking effect. I only feel numb in my legs and that isn't going to help much in labor. I had what you call a window. I was numb every where except my left side. It was a painful but fast labor. Nolan was born at 9:06 pm on Sunday August 16th. He weighed 6 pounds 12 ounces and was 19 3/4 inches long. We were so happy to meet him.

We think he looks a lot like his brother.

The first family photo taken of the four of us!

Dog Park

We recently visited a dog park in our neighborhood. It is just a temporary one. They are trying to see what kind of interest it will get before building a more permanent one. We decided to take the family on opening day. We rarely do anything for our dog Pepper anymore. It's usually all about Camden, so we thought this would be a good opportunity to make it about Pepper.

As it turns out Pepper couldn't hate that park anymore, and Camden couldn't love it anymore. It was of course crowded with dogs, and there were a lot of over anxious big dogs at this park. Pepper I am not sure really thinks of himself as a dog, so being surrounded by them was not his idea of fun. Then there is all of the sniffing of each other and chasing. I ended up holding him most of the time.

Camden however must think of himself as a dog. This was by far his favorite park he had ever been to. He had a great time running all over the park, in an out of dogs. He chased dogs, and he was chased by dogs. He climbed on all of the rocks. The only thing that separated him from the dogs was that he peed in his diaper, oh and he wasn't into sniffing bottoms. We had such a hard time dragging him out of there. Oh well, next time we will just have to take Camden there to get his exercise.

I think this is the only picture of Pepper on the ground.

Cousin Bath

Oh I love bath time. It's so fun when you can have a friend to play with. We visited my sister a little while ago and decided to bathe the kids before we headed home.

Camden had no problem washing his cousins hair and dumping water on her head.

And of course you have to do silly hair styles before getting them out.

Bubble Bath

Camden taking his first ever bubble bath. I think it was a hit.

Why didn't we add bubbles sooner?

Easter

Easter weekend started with a chocolate bunny sent to us in the mail. Could Camden look any more excited about this chocolate bunny?

It seems the chocolate bunny was a hit, and we are still eating it today.

Saturday morning we headed over to a local park for the annual Easter egg hunt in our neighborhood. This was our first year to participate, because Easter was so early last year Camden wasn't even walking. We were not to miss this year rain or shine!

Unfortunately the forecast called for rain. We headed out a half an hour early to get our spot. We were told that the hunt starts at 10AM sharp and the eggs go fast. The weather seemed to hold off until three minutes to 10am. Then is started pouring. The hunt started 5-10 minutes late so Camden was not impressed with this family outing. It was so cold and rainy that Camden's little hands were too cold to pick up eggs. He ended up pointing to eggs and we picked them up for him. That's Easter in the Northwest for you!

All of the eggs for the 1-3 year olds.

Sunday wasn't any better. Luckily all of our activities were indoors. In the morning we headed to Church as a family. We came home for brunch and gave Camden his Easter basket. He seemed really excited about this.

The Easter bunny seemed to be a big fan of bath time. Camden got special Elmo bubble bath, along with bath fizzes that change the water colors and crayons for the bath. They have all been a big hit at our house. He also got some books and chalk. The Easter bunny even brought Camden some candy.

Then it was time for a quick nap and off to my Sister's for Easter dinner with the rest of the family. We even arranged to have an indoor Easter egg hunt for Camden and his cousin. Camden had a fun time searching the house for the eggs and putting them in his basket. His cousin Peanut searched in his basket for all of her eggs. In the end everyone got plenty of sweet treats.

The best part of the weekend was getting to tell our families that we are expecting our second little boy at the end of the summer. It was a nice way to end the weekend. We are excited to welcome this little boy into our family.