Celebrating

This week I am celebrating …

That Samantha is a one-month-old. Already?! 

The grand opening of Sports Place. Matthew brought his basketball hoop, hockey net, soccer ball, lacrosse stick, football, and boom ball set on our deck. He was all set to play sports but first came up with the brilliant idea that, “Actually, this is a sports store called Sports Place.” Here is what else;

You can order things online at sportsplace.com that won’t fit in your car.

When you pick up the store phone you have to say, “Sports Place, where you can play any sports!” 

There are sports for older kids at ages, 6, 10, and 8 but they are not in season. 

Bowling will be starting this season. 

The cookies I gave him for snack were good and we can sell them in our store. 

Our first trip to the drive inn as a family of four.

Early on

A little before the movie began

He stayed awake for half the movie

Getting thisclose to getting Matthew to eat birthday chicken (chicken with sauce) and pirate potato boats (twice baked potatoes.) At least he ate all his pirates (carrots). 

That Matthew ran into the room to tell me, “Samantha smiled at me like a real person!” 

The naïve portrayal of Darth Vader that Matthew has. When “Dark Vader” comes swooping by on his Trio Block built spaceship he hums an upbeat tune one might associate with a bakery rather than the dark side. 

Seeing signs of the next season.

Our pumpkins are starting to grow

Marveling

This week, I’ve been marveling that …

August has slipped in. Last week we went blueberry picking at the farm, a yearly tradition since Matthew was a newborn. I baked a blueberry and nectarine crumble with our findings. 

A conversation between two little ones never fails to amuse me.

Girl at playground: Pretend this is our house and the kitchen is here.

Matthew: And who wants to be Buzz Lightyear?

Girl at playground: I’ll be Carly and you can be Freddie.

Matthew: Let’s play pirate ship okay? 

In the same amount of time that it took to get the kids and I fed, dressed, and settled into activities (sleeping for Sam, coloring for Matt, uploading pictures for me) the Bobs had built a patio.

The ten thousand many times a four-year-old needs to hear that he has to finish his hot dog and grapes before he can have a much coveted cookie.

The best play things come from nature.

I couldn’t put this book Little Bee down, about a 16-year old refugee from Nigeria. Matthew has been enjoying a new book this week too called, Do Not Build AFrankenstein. We’ve read it over and over again.

A baby can sleep through what I’ll refer to as the-superglue-in-the-eye-incident, and a train ride, but not through a dark and quiet night. 

I still hold our baby to watch her sleep for awhile during those middle of the night feedings. It’s harder not to.

The body can adjust to the sleep deprivation caused by a newborn. A four-hour stretch feels equivalent to sleeping in until noon.

Matthew walks about with “spy gadgets” that he built from Trio Blocks in the waistband of his pants.

A list of eight simple rules on the bulletin board of our kitchen has made all the difference in a short time. 

 

Football Dollface(s)

 Matthew was three-months-old when we took him to his first Patriots practice. He was small enough to fit into a build a bear Patriots Jersey. Mike came with us. I remember the experience being mildly boring except for when I was stressed while trying to get Matt to nurse in the filthy bathroom. I do feel a sense of accomplishment after the fact as Matthew can tell you that he’s been going to see the Patriots at Gillette since before he can remember. In this family something like that holds him in high esteem.  

Namely for the sake of tradition we took Samantha at nineteen-days-old to her first Patriots practice. We opted for her to wear a pink team onsie which was a gift from Mike. He could not join us as he now works for the Patriots and was sitting the press box. The practice was still as mildly boring as I remembered it being, but with a four-year-old shouting whichever football chants or player names that came to mind, I found myself having quite a bit of fun. If you saw me nurse, Samantha in the filthy bathroom you would think we did it everyday. When it was time to go I felt a sense of accomplishment solely for the reason that everyone had a really good time.

Summer Activities

I have been looking forward to the chaos this summer will bring; chasing after two children, eating dinner out of a lunchbox in the park, containing Matthew’s nature collection to a shoe box instead of the in between his bed sheets. I have also been looking forward to the peacefulness this summer will bring; the velvety touch of a newborn’s skin, being under no obligation to start my morning by the buzzing sound of the alarm clock, and reading books in between everything else.  So far this summer has brought a little bit of both. There has been a lot that we have had to do!

There are questions to be answered;

Matt: Does everyone talk differently?

Me: Yes.

Matt: How do Legos talk?

Birthdays to be had;

My birthday was this week. Bob and Matthew made me a wonderful pink chocolate cake to celebrate.

Of course the best birthday present came a week and one day earlier.

Trips to take;

“Look a bird arm,” Matt pointing at a feather on the ground.

Once the weather finally cooled down after a heat wave we were able to venture outside to the park. Samantha slept through the entire trip. Seconds after we got there Matt announced he had to pee. Then he got stuck climbing up the jungle gym. In the sandbox he buried a toy shovel and then forgot where he buried it. I do believe this was an elaborate ruse to get me into the sandbox with him, the clever child that he is. 

Naps to be had; 

Forts to be built; 

Settling In

Now that I held a baby in my arms Matthew looked like he had grown three feet since I last saw him that morning. When he came to meet his sister for the first time we held our breath, expecting that he would be resentful over her arrival. Instead he asked to hold her. He kissed her hands and the top of her head. He didn’t show any signs of the sibling rivalry that he showed during the last few months of my pregnancy.  Instead he showed love. 

In the days since her arrival I have been staring at this baby an awful lot. She is a calm and peaceful baby, waking only to nurse every two to four hours. Bob took this week and next off from work and our days have fallen into an easy rhythm of spending time getting to know our newest little one and making sure to give enough deserved attention to our older little one.

This week we had a birthday party for Matthew’s stuffed bear. He turned six. I had a box of cake mix in the cupboard that we whipped up cupcakes with and Matthew decorated large sheets of paper for wrapping paper. Goody bags were handed out at the end of the party, a fun sized bag of M&M’s (also found in the cupboard). 

Stuffed bears don't mind if their gifts come from the toy room instead of the toy store

Something Pink

On Friday at 4 a.m. Matthew woke me up to ask me to check on him every ten minutes while he sleeps. At least he’s original and didn’t ask for a glass of water. It was at that time that I noticed I was having mild contractions. When I got back to bed I nudged Bob awake to tell him. Neither of us could go back to sleep out of excitement so while I walked off my increasing steady contractions, he began cleaning the house. It is fair to say that Bob always begins his Fridays by cleaning the house, but he assured me that he was preparing for the arrival of the new baby.

At 6:30 a.m. a call had been put into Grandma to come watch Matthew as the contractions were getting worse, no matter how patient Matthew was at waiting for me to recover so that we could go back to playing Lego Pirates. I was still four days away from my due date and felt like there were a few last things that I still needed to do. Soon all I could manage to do was lie on the bed and get exasperated with Bob over flip flops. 

We arrived at the hospital by 9 a.m. I was four centimeters dilated which meant I labored longer at home this time than I had with Matthew. I had wanted that to happen so I was pleased but what I wanted more than anything was an epidural. Bob tried to distract me, emphasize with me, but his kindness and compassion was drowned out by my wails of sorrow and misery.  

By 1:30 p.m. I felt calm, energized, and pain free thanks to an epidural. My water broke so things were going along as they should. By 3:30 I was given the go ahead to start pushing. It was surreal how peaceful it felt at the time. A short while later Samantha was born at 3:48 at 7 lbs, 8 ounces, and 20 inches. 

Preschool Graduation

On Monday Matthew had a preschool graduation. The friends and family sat in chairs outside where there was a table set up with diplomas. One by one the kids were called out of the school. The majority of the children were overcome with shyness in front of the crowd. When it was his turn Matthew ran to the table soliciting a chuckle from the crowd.