Sledding

A few weeks ago Adam, Gerrit, Luke, Paul, Anne, and Abby went sledding at the golf course. I went to take pictures. This was Gerrit's first time really sledding. (He has been pulled around our yard but nothing with a serious hill.) He loved it! We first had to switch to the next size up in winter gear before heading out. Sad to see Max's snow pants too small but thankful that Luke's fit now!

Top left: Gerrit gets the best end of the deal, not having to walk back up the hill!

Top middle: Gerrit enjoying the toboggan, refusing to look at the camera, of course

Top left: side angle of the sled (compliments of Rockne's)

Bottom left: Adam and Gerrit on our sled

Bottom middle: Another great thing about being small, you can get a ride up the hill too.

Bottom right: my attempt to get a picture of the boys on the sled together. (Anne and Abby stuck together as they didn't want to go down the jumps like the boys.)

Gerrit had a blast and talks about sledding again soon. We here Oma and Opa have a nice hill outside the condo that Gerrit and Adam will have to check out next week.

The Family

I never thought I'd dress my kids in the same clothes (I grew up with having similar outfits as my sisters), but I couldn't pass up matching jammies. Gerrit loved the fact that they matched so maybe they will have matching or coordinating outfits from time to time...

You can tell that the picture of me and the boys was taken when Emmit was about a week old as he still had his 'tan'. The picture of Adam and the boys was taken this week and Emmit's color is much better! Gerrit is a pistol these days when it comes to looking at the camera for a photo!

Oma and Opa

I realized it has been a while since I last wrote and posted pictures...and tomorrow we are off for MI so I thought I'd take a quick minute to post a few pictures. We had a great time with Oma and Opa. They let me sleep often and took care of the kids as much as possible, plus cleaned part of the house and ran errands. I think they should've stayed another week (I could get a lot more done then!) Here they are doing what they did most of the time they were here:

Oma held Emmit as much as she could...

Opa wasn't allowed to hold Emmit - Gerrit insisted he play with him! They played bouncy ball, baseball, basketball, Noah's ark, and some sort of combat/army (top photo). Gerrit came home from Luke/Paul's house with the GI Joe helmet (my brother had one growing up too). I laugh every time he puts that thing on as it reminds me of my childhood. He uses it more for his batting helmet and football helmet than combat which I laugh at too.

We are excited to be going to MI to have Emmit meet the rest of his family.

Brothers Quiz

Guess who is who?

Indy 500

Today we took Gerrit to the high school for the Indy 500 (an hour of riding your favorite toy). It was well worth the $2 and we wish they had this every month! Here are a few of the high lights:

Top left: a view from across the gym - Opa taking pictures

Top middle: Emmit enjoying the Indy 500 with Oma

Top right: coasting down the hallway - wishing there was a hill to gain more speed

Bottom left: Dad walking with the first few times around the track

Middle left: taking a break and watching the basketball practice

Middle right: torn between 2 favorites: basketball and biking

Bottom right: taking a break and smiling for mom

Celebratory Drink

My good friend Sue came down for dinner tonight to see my parents and little Emmit (again). We had dinner brought over from the neighbors (homemade sauce by Nick!) so it was an easy dinner: pasta, salad, and bread. My parents brought a 'non-alcoholic' wine to celebrate little Emmit's birth so we decided to have that with some real wine tonight. I poured myself a glass and Gerrit too while the rest had the wine. I took a few sips of it and thought it tasted pretty much like wine and nothing like sparkling juice. Gerrit took a sip and didn't finish his either.

I looked at the bottle and seeing it said 11.5% alcohol...

OOPS! Way to go Opa - serving your 2 yr old grandson alcohol!

Proper Plumbing

My good friend Joy sent this piggy bank for Emmit. I have no idea where she found it but I love it! Gerrit was taking a look at it and trying to figure out what it does...

Opa gave him a few coins and showed him where to put the money. He quickly caught on and put the rest of the coins in the bank. When he finished he asked:

"Now it poop?"

A Tutorial...

From what we have learned from the gentleman who dropped of the billy blanket, it was developed by a father of 7 who had 5 of his children requiring the lights and an extended stay at the hospital. He wanted to come up with something that would allow parents to take their children home and still get the light treatment.

In case you have not been exposed to a Billy Blanket, I thought I'd let you in on what it looks like - nothing like an actual blanket.

This is it:

The box is what generates the blue lights and the white curved thing is the 'blanket'. Its more like a flexible paddle that goes around the torso of the baby and needs to be as close to the arm pit as possible.

This is what it looks like when its worn. Emmit is not happy as I just put it on him after we returned from his Dr. apt on Monday. We ran out of the stickers that are used to keep it in place so we went with the next best thing - athletic tape!

This is what it looks like with the lights off. Gerrit commented on how Emmit had his own Christmas lights! It was nice not to have to use a light in the middle of the night to change his pants etc. - Emmit had his own night light!

Our Little Tan Man

Friday when the Pediatrician checked out Emmit it was determined that he was very jaundice for being so young. So some blood work was ordered and the circumcision was put on hold till Sat morning. Sure enough, the blood work confirmed his high level of billy which meant he needed to eat more to flush it out of his system. So we worked hard on getting him to eat all day and he was retested at night - higher level still. Sat. am came and another test confirmed his level continued to rise (which is typical, just not at this saturated level). Because he was eating and wasn't in the highest risk area, the circumcision went on as planned. The question was whether we'd go home or not. The doc didn't think we needed to stay another night in the hospital with Emmit being put 'under the lights', but she sent us home w/ a "billy blanket" (actually it was delivered to the house in the evening).

Here is Emmit sporting his 'going home' outfit, compliments of Oma. (I made the hat and booties.) Gerrit's coming home booties were almost too small, so I wanted to make sure Emmit's would fit - guess they'll fit him for a while!

The happy (partial) family ready to head home and start our life as 4: (Emmit is sporting his cousin Max's snow suit from 12 yrs ago!)

Adam having a bit of fun with Emmit's large hands - getting him prepped for what is to come with his big brother. With Gerrit's arm and Emmit's hand size, we've got a nice quarter back/receiver combo brewing in our home.

Big brother Gerrit holding Emmit when we finally got home on Sat....notice the difference in facial color. It looks like Emmit just returned from a trip to Hawaii! (I finished his blanket just in time for his birth and there is a cute bunny that coordinates and yarn for a jacket yet to be made.)

After 2 trips back to the Dr. (since we've been home) to get his 'billy' level checked, we think he's reached his peak (thank goodness!). Today was very similar to yesterday's level so the Dr. said he only needs the billy blanket for 1-2 days yet. As much of a pain the 'blanket' is, we are thankful we didn't have to stay longer at the hospital! (I'll take a picture of the 'blanket' as it is quite the device and not at all what we thought it would be like.)

The Night Before Emmit

It all started at 9:30am on Wed. when I thought I had my next Dr. apt. Pam said she'd ride along to keep me company and an eye on me. So we headed out and north only to find out that my apt was actually on Thurs. at 9:30! Oops. Of all the apts I've had, I've never messed up! I was able to get rescheduled for 3pm so Pam and I went shopping! We did a few returns and found a few new items to add to possessions. We had some lunch and then headed back to the Dr. Both of us couldn't believe how fast the time went!

My Dr. was on call for the New Year, so we talked about inducing while he was on this weekend if I didn't go earlier. So we said Sunday would be the day. Adam and I decided not to tell anyone this was the plan so there would be a bit of surprise for the rest of the world.

Following daycare, Gerrit wanted to shovel (surprised?), and seeing we did get some snow, we hung outside for a bit. I took the big shovel and pushed the light fluffy stuff to the side and figured Adam could clean it up when he got home. Seeing I couldn't mow the lawn (which I hear can help start labor - worked for a friend!), I would go with shoveling.

We had a nice dinner and Gerrit helped Adam finish the shoveling. I was planning on taking down the Christmas decorations on Thurs. so I wanted to get a picture of myself in front of the tree so we had a little photo shoot:

Gerrit giving his baby brother a 'kiss'.

I knew I was big, but whooh - that is big! I totally look like I am due - not sure what others were looking at who told me I didn't look like I was due.

The evening went as usual and around 9 pm I decided I needed a snack. (Yes, a bit earlier than the 10pm snack I was having on a regular basis.) I asked Adam if he wanted something and as I stood up, my water broke! There goes our snack! (I told Adam we were going to stop by DQ on our way out of town or McD's for something seeing I was hungry.)

We packed up what was left to pack - as I wasn't totally prepared and dropped Gerrit off at Dahlen's. (Seeing we had about an hour drive, I figured we should just get to the hospital and skip the snack.) No major contractions or discomfort which made the ride a bit easier. Once at the hospital we played the waiting game. We wanted to see if my body kicked into labor on its own so I was given some sleeping medicine and we went to bed. Around 6am it was decided to give me some drugs to start the process, which meant more pain with each contraction. I make it till 9am and decided to throw in the towel (I was hungry and wanted this babe out, plus I wasn't progressing like I had hoped!). I got the epidural from a cousin of a Pitt. Steeler's player. How cool is that? Once the epidural kicked in, my body relaxed and things moved ahead much faster. (Same thing happened with Gerrit's birth.) We waited for my Dr. to arrive at the hospital before they let me push so I started pushing at 12:20 pm and he was born at 1:24 pm.

This brings us to the pictures that Adam posted in the next posting.