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.)