What Valentines Looks like with a new baby!

The babies woke up to valentine's balloons and bubbles
and ended with some sushi....yumm-oh-luh
A little romance...kind of.

Seriously, have you tried gyoza? It is awesome.
Night wouldn't be perfect without a sonic drink.
While Creed was enjoying like a full 2 or 3 sushi rolls, Rinn was enjoying McDonalds and not ashamed a bit.
Mommy and baby baby.
And in the middle of our day....out to spend time with our buddies. Here is Creed and Cole giving the thumbs up on our yummy breakfast.


The daddies and their baby valentines...how sweet are they? The awesomeness of my friend, Rachel.... (notice also the cute kiddos)
Her adult table...
Her kid table...how wonderful to be surrounded by verses of God's love and a little place-card that said "Jesus loves____" with each child's name in it.
Of course, we didn't get a pic of the moms, I would have probably objected anyway but I did have a wonderful time on Valentine's morning spending time with two ladies that I love and admire. 

Sugar Shacks and Valentines

Rinny enjoying the paint on her feet...Creed enjoying the paint on his hands....
We've actually been pretty good on the arts and crafts lately...the formal schooling we are still taking a break but we are "back to school" tomorrow!!
Rinn's favorite part of edible snacks...
Focus, Creed, focus.

The theme for today (Will and KK were over for a few hours) was "teamwork". The boys worked on a team and the girls worked on a team. KK and Rinn worked so well together and their conversation was so sweet. 

kk: Do you think we should use pink or red candy, Rinn?

rinn: Pink

kk: Oh, Rinn, that's such a great idea.

The entire hour they worked on it, the conversation went about the same way. Oh, they are lovely!

Don't the boys look so cute? They actually did a great job on the "teamwork" theme until the end when I started to hear Creed bull-dozing Will's ideas...it finally ended with Will just giving in (reminds me of me bulldozing my sister as kids). I said "Creed, it doesn't look like Will is too happy, are you working as a team?" He basically told me, yep, he came up with the idea and Will didn't fight him too hard about it. Will was just like "yea, I said it was okay."

The boy house

The girl house

Happy 10 month birthday!

Things I love about my 10 month old:

How he is a cuddle bug

How he studies people and just stares them down

How he leans back in his carrier to figure out all that is going on around him

How he rubs my arm, chest, and face when he is falling asleep

His crunchy diaper in my face in bed

His wispy hair in my face 5 seconds later in bed

His little half-mouth smile

Those eyes

How he likes to play crawl away from mommy while she chases me and then how he stops right as I get to him and starts crawling like crazy to me

How he stares in my eyes

How he smiles when I walk in to get him from his nap

How he buries his head in my chest or shoulder

How he thinks it is a hilarious new joke everytime he signs "all done" at the high chair

How when he wakes up and he is laying sideways in our bed and stretches and kicks his legs and says "bub.bub.bub.bub" over and over

How he is content to sit in my lap

The way his neck smells in the crease

His buns

His little long and lean body type

His belly laugh

How he doesn't argue with me when I call him my baby (which I cannot say for his older sister)

How he loves me even more when I am in an ala-naturale state with no makeup, unbrushed teeth, no makeup, and in the same tank top I have worn for 3 days straight :)

and.......

about a million other things.

Happy 10 month birthday, little bitty boy.

AND...yes, that is a lollipop, yes, I did let him suck it, YES I said I would never ever do such a thing just for a good picture, NO I do not feel guilty about it, and YES, he did throw a fit when we took it away :)

What we are up to

Happy Groundhog Day (late)...projects are taking a few days to complete around here...sorry :)
What we have been doing a lot of lately...Movie Nights...Last night was Aladdin and Creed and Rinn each ate an entire bag of popcorn...the big bags, not the mini bags. Amazing. 
Jude during movie night...
Ummm...What mom? I'm not getting into anything.!.!
I still can't get over the teeth



He loves playing with the play kitchen.
Here's the real quick deal on what is going on (Jude is asleep but you never know how long that will last)....

Jude was still running a fever (like 103) as of yesterday, so we took him back in to the dr. and he has an pretty bad ear infection, also tons of junk in his ear that had to be scraped out. He is tough and didn't even cry. He has had 3 doses of antibiotic and you can tell he is feeling much better already, no fever. 

Jude has learned to fight sleep really bad. He doesn't want to miss out on what is going on. Luckily, once he gives in and falls asleep, he is good to go for the most part. Night-time is going well..usually like at least a 5-6 hour stretch each night. 

I'm exhausted...feeling really tired. I think the adrenaline rush from last week is wearing off and I am paying for it now. I'll make it.....tomorrow I am counting on a fabulous nap since the hubster will be home from work. 

Balancing three children and trying to make all of them feel special is still a work in progress for me. The kids all seem to be doing pretty well with it, though. 

I feel like I have no creative juices flowing out of me right now, so no catchy blog title, terrible pictures, and elementary descriptions...sorry:)

Sickness....

Micah's first day back to work and you guessed it...Jude is sick. Fever and acting sick. Alternating tylenol and motrin and cuddlying all day. Other two are doing groundhog activities. Poor guy.

Still Smiling...

Makin' sure daddy is still there...yep, he isCheck out the drool....man, this kid is a drool box. Have I mentioned he has SEVEN teeth!!!! Give the boy a steak, for heaven's sake. 

First doctor visit with our doctor, who happens to be a dear friend. That's a major plus. To know that Jude will know his doctor as a buddy will really help. Plus, he spent like 45 minutes with us talking about international adoption, about Jude, and taking time to really answer my crazy nutso new mom questions and worries. No painful procedures today and Jude had the time of his life. Dr. G said his burns look good and he doesn't think he will need anything further. He mentioned we could put Vitamin E oil on them to help with the scarring and that there will indeed, be some scarring but that they should not effect his dexterity. We also talked a lot about whether or not we really need to do the blood tests that our adoption agency strongly recommends. You may not know this about me but I am a major non medical interventionist (except for taking medications...I used to be a pharmaceutical rep, remember! I love myself some drugs). But, other than meds, I don't like lots of pricks and prods and stuff like that especially on my babies. I'm actually kind of a hippy in that manner (remember, my name is Sunshine and I may have been born in the 70's). So, I was thinking maybe we would opt not to do the blood tests that our agency recommends. But, our dr. really thinks that we should and his list of tests were the same as the recommended list for our agency. So, I am not thrilled about doing blood work on my poor baby boy but in a month, I think that is what we are going to do. Seriously, I think I may have to ask Dr. G for some valium for the day of and the day before. This could be bad, really bad. 

Jude is 18.5 pounds and nearly 30 inches LONG!!! His little body type is soooo different than our other two. He just feels so different and sweet in my arms. He is in about the 75% for height and 25% for weight (US chart). And, in case you were wondering....(I do have the Gap size chart memorized) and he is barely in the 6-12 mo size for weight and just in the 12-18 month for height. He has been wearing mostly 6-12 mo. b/c that is what I have out, and I have SOOO many cute new outfits from showers in that size but I do know that the 12-18 month clothes will be coming out soon. FYI: Creed was always in about the 10-20% chart and Rinn has hardly ever been on the chart once she was about 2 months old she dropped off and has nearly been off ever since...little pa-tooty. Jude wears a size FIVE shoe. No wonder the kid wants to walk with those boats! Hilarious. 
Micah and I just had Jude (thanks, Mrs. Woodard!!!) and so we went out to eat after our doctor's appointment. It was Jude's first real trip out in real public. He did so well and we kept him really close to us. This little guy is just a little sugar bear.
Three days ago, outside.

Today, outside. This is insane. Jude's first walk around the block (below).
I think Rinn is doing better, still a bit emotional but really interacting better with her brother. She is starting to learn how to act toward him. She even lets him pull her hair without freaking out. It was hard to get this girl to look at the camera and not her brother constantly.

Quick, New Update

The little guy getting adjusted to his high chair. He is pretty happy in it as long as you are stuffing his face really fast, as soon as you slow down..uh oh. You really needed to see this little rat's nest he has every morning and after every nap. It cracks me up. 
Do not walk on the ice outside (note the big huge goose-egg on the top left...it really was way worse than it looks.)
The hat stayed on for .2 seconds. So cute, though.
These brothers are buddies...yes, they did still have their Christmas jammies on, give me a break...we are enjoying our time bonding, not worrying that we have had the same clothes on for a day and a half!
Okay, here is the main question for this blog: Are you a middle child and did you turn out okay? Rinn is the one I am worrying about. She is so sweet and so gets lost in the mix. Our conversation (while I was doing her nails) went like this...

Me: "So, Rinn (pretending I barely know her)...I hear you have a new brother...tell me about that."

Rinn: "Yep, he's cute."

Me: "So, does he get a lot of attention?"

Rinn: "Yep, he gets lots of attention and my brother, Creed, he gets ALL the attention."

Kind of true, actually but we have been trying so hard to make it not true. That little sugar is the sweetest little thing in the world. A bit emotional, but sweet none the less. 

So, I was a middle child.....hmm...welp, we better move on but Micah was also a middle child and he ended up okay. I really don't count myself as a middle child, though, because my personality was a bit like Creed's, I demanded attention and my older sis, Sky, just laid down and took it, always taking up for her little sis. So, it is kind of like I was a first child, in some sense. So, let me know....tell me she will be okay. 

I honestly know she will be okay but I just worry about her little sugary self. So, in this picture I am doing something I swore I would not let ANYONE do for months after Jude was home. I let her feed him. Mind you, Micah has barely fed him because I am so possessive of this time, but Rinny needed some bonding with him and it was sweet for a second (until he started arching his back for his mom). 
Family photo...this is as good as it gets, friends....I am pretty sure once you have more than 3 children you never get a photo of everyone smiling (unless, of course, you are a Woodard and then your kids are perfect and do whatever the photographer says! Well, come to think of it a Duncan too, not so much an Anderson thing though :)!!!!)