WELCOME BABY DYLAN!

With much anticipation...and swelling of various body parts, baby Dylan is finally here! He was born on Tuesday September 22 at 5:10 pm. He weighed 8 lbs 14 oz and is beautiful! I couln't have had a smoother delivery, which was such a relief after what I went through with Arlo. Clint and I were both suprised that I didn't go early, since with Arlo I was 10 days early. I actually had to get induced to avoid my Dr. going out of town. I arrived at the hospital at 10:30 and was checked in to the birthing room by 11:00. For the first while I had to be on an antibiotic for testing positive for strep B. by 12:30 they put me on pitocin and at 2:00 the Dr. broke my water. At first I wasn't having any contractions so I just told the nurse I would let her know when I wanted an epidural. This was a mistake! I should have gotten the drugs right when my water was broken. within 5 minutes I went from little to no contractions, to major intense contractions. I endured these for only about 30 minutes thank goodness for epidurals! after that it was smooth sailing. By 5 I had a feeling I was ready to go. I could feel a lot of pressure and asked my nurse to check me. Good thing I did! I was fully efaced and dialated and ready to have a baby. My Dr. came in and I started pushing at 5:07. After 3 pushes (at 5:10) Dylan was here. It was unbelievable! I couldn't believe how easy it was. It was crazy that I was able to deliver such a big boy with no problems. both my Dr and I were shocked by his size. By my measurements he thought that Dylan would be about the same size as Arlo when he was born. I finally have a baby with some chub! he is so cute. He looks so much like Arlo did when he was born. Welcome to the family Dylan! we are so happy your here

Bed Time Rituals

Over the past few years of having Arlo, our family has developed fun little rituals that we do just to spice up the daily routine. I have noticed kids REALLY like repitition and things that they can count on. Over the past few weeks a very cute ritual has developed between Arlo and Dad. At first I am sure Clint thought it was innocent. I mean after all, all he did was mention one night before bed that he would stay in there with him talk a while. A few nights later It was still going, only they weren't talking...exactly.

After our usual goodnight loves and cuddles Clint hangs back with his boy and they sing, yes thats right, sing together. What you ask? Well it is really quite an eclectic mix. We have some good old fashioned Rock N Roll such as Deep Purples Smoke on the Water and Dead Leopards (as Arlo calls them) pour some sugar on me, mixed in with a few classic nursury rhymes such as twinkle twinkle little star and hickory dickory dock. A few times I have noticed Clint struggling a bit with the words to the nursury rhymes and he just kind of throws a few things in there. it cracks me up! he is pretty creative. Well, the other day Clint came home from work with an entire notebook of full of nursury rhymes he had printed out. He said " The kid remembers everything and If were going to sing these I had better teach him the right words or he will be going to school singing them all jacked up." (I have also learned this the hard way by mis pronouncing dinosaur names which Arlo later refuses to fix. sorry palentologists everywhere!) Anyway it seems that the Daddy Arlo song time is here to stay. Arlo just loves it and I love my husband for coming up with it. What a good dad. My boy-soon to be boys are so lucky to have him.

The cute things he says....

There have been a slew of funny comments comming out of my son this week and I thought I should get some out before I forget about them....

Arlo: Mom, When Is Dylan Hatching?

(man I wish it were that easy!)

Arlo: Ok, So right now I am Peter Parker, But when I put these on, I will turn into Spider Man

(please see Pajamees -as he calls them, below)

Arlo:

Pre-School Update-Day 2

After day one down I was feeling less nervous about day 2. I figured that he might have some tears but I knew that he do fine after the initial drop off. My sister came with me so that Arlo could show her his classroom and his desk. We walked him in, talked with him a bit, gave him a hug and left. He did amazing! no tears at all. As the matter of fact this is a little conversation we had about school right before we left. I could have died of cuteness. I love my boy.

Mom: So are you excited for school today

Arlo: Do you think I will draw another red fire truck?

Mom: That would be so cool, or you might even draw something else

Arlo: Yea. That boy Colton was really sad

Mom: Yea. Sometimes it's hard the first day.

Arlo: But it's ok. If he is sad today I will tell him it's ok and his mom will be there soon, cuz it's not very long

Mom: Sweety that is a great idea. What a good friend you are

Remembering 9-11 ...or Trying to

My great freind Bonnie had the idea to take the kids today to a special 9-11 memorial that was taking place in Sandy. We thought that even though they wouldn't understand it fully, it was a good opportunity to talk a bit about it and for Bonnie and I to take a minute to remember. Well, I don't think Arlo was feeling quite as patriotic about the whole thing as I was.... Heres some pics below

Mom trying to walk Arlo through the flags and Arlo-not having it

David taking pics with the soldiers (Arlo was off to the side clinging on my leg...)

Although my boy didn't get much out of it. I was glad I did something to take a moment, reflect, remember, and pay my respects. We took the boys to the park after and they had a great time. It was a great day!

Pre-School Day one Down! We made it

Arlo Before Going to School

Arlo at his desk Arlo at the RugArlo using the sink

Well, today has come and went and my little guy made it through his first day at school. I think this will definately be going down as one of the toughest things I have faced as a mom so far. Hopefully through this parenting journey I can learn to toughen up a bit...and gain some perspective, or I think I might be in trouble!

The morning started with a lot of anxiety and crying for Arlo. He locked himself in a room at one point stating over and over he wasn't going to pre-school. I tried my best to keep positive and calm his nerves, but at certain points my own nerves were getting the best of me and we both were reduced to tears.

By the time we were ready to go, I got him feeling pretty ok about things and took him to get a bagel before (this is always a shur fire way to cheer him up). When we got to school, I took friends advice and tried to make the drop off short and sweet. I walked him in to his classroom, helped him put his bag in his cubby, showed him to his chair where his very kind teacher was waiting, and then I peeled his crying body off of mine and walked out of the door.

I drove to a nearby target parking lot and cried for about 20 minutes, then I called my sister and husband and cried some more. After the cryfest, I got it together enough to go into target and pick my little guy up a car toy (Mader from the movie Cars to be exact) as a reward for his first day.

When I thought it would be safe I headed back to his school and peeped through the viewing window for the last 35 minutes of class. I can't believe what I saw. My boy was doing fine! He was eating his snack and listening very intently to his teachers. A few times he tried to sneak away to play with the toys during rug time, but his teacher lovingly guided him back. He definately was still not having it with the songs but he was doing such a great job with listening and craft time; although he had his red fire engine colored in about 30 seconds and was making another escape with one of the other boys back to the toys.

It was so funny and interesting to watch how he interacted in his new environment. I noticed that the boys in his class seemed to have a much harder time sitting still during rug and craft time than the girls. They seemed to just want to move, Including my guy. He really did great with following directions though, and if he was straying from a certain activity, one kind word from the teacher seemed to get him back on track. I also saw that a lot of the kids at different times were having a hard time with being there. A few broke out into tears asking for their mommy's. Arlo may have been the worst in the beginning, but he was doing great by the end. I was so relieved to see him getting along just fine and before I knew it, He was done and walking out the door with a big smile to greet me!

When we got home I sat him on my lap and we had a little chat about school.

our conversation below;

Mommy: So what did you like best about school?

Arlo: Um, snacks were good. We got those fishes

Mommy: Was there anything you didn't like

Arlo: Yea, they wanted me to carry a flag

Mommy:oh really, during song time?

Arlo: yea

Mommy: Well what did you think about school, do you think you will be ok with going back?

Arlo: I was scared , but then I think I liked it

Mommy: I love you so much and I am so proud of you for going to big boy school. I am sorry that I cried but It was really hard for me to leave.

Arlo: Mom, I just wanted to be with you so much, thats why I cried. But then I was ok

After our chat I gave him his new mader car which he was very happy about and the rest was history! We made it Whew-day one is over and hopefully day two wont be as hard on either of us.

Pre-School Orientation

On Thursday we went to Arlo's very anticipated pre-school orientation. Since I began doing research for the right school for him and found this one, I just haven't been sure if he is ready. I know he will love the structure and learning aspect, but he is extremely shy in new settings and very attached to me. Luckily, as the summer has gone on he has really turned a corner with his shyness and I have actually been feeling pretty hopeful about the whole thing.
Well, orientation turned out to be a rough one for Arlo and for Mommy. When we arrived it was really crowded and somewhat chaotic. Arlo was immediately freaked out. When his dad got there he seemed to calm down a bit and we headed into his new classroom. His teacher was so nice and great with Arlo. She gave him a special shirt and bag, and showed us where his cubby and desk was. He was still tense as ever, but once he saw all of the toys and made his way over to them he started to loosen up a bit. We met two little boys and talked to his teacher for quite a while about airplanes. Things seemed to be looking up..that is until we had to transition to something new. The teacher put on a clean up song and asked that all of the kids finish up with the toys and join her on the rug. He looked at me with panic, and his eyes welled up with tears as he exclaimed; "I don't want to clean up!".
Once I got him to the rug the teacher went through some interactive ABC songs and games. Arlo refused to join in. He kept turning to me and giving me this look that seemed to say "are you serious? This is lame!"
After the ABC's we had to make another transition to the gym where the head of the pre-school was going to read the kids a story and chat with the parents. With this news, he had another melt down. By this time I was having a bit of a melt down myself (although doing my best to try and hide it). I wanted to take him and run out of the building. He felt so scared and unsafe. I just wanted to make everything right for him... It was torture.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, it was time to go. All the way home I was so upset I couldn't even talk for fear I would burst into tears. (I don't think the fact that I am over 8 months prego, swollen and having contractions was really helping my emotional state.)
When we got home Clint was trying to get me to talk about what aspects of the evening were so upsetting and of course, once again, the waterworks started flowing. I began sputtering things out like "I can't do it....he was so afraid...he doesn't like it etc etc"
The next thing I know, my little man comes up to me and says, " Mom, don't be sad. I will be OK, I just didn't like the big gym, but I liked my class. It's OK."
Here I am, the Mommy-the one who is supposed to be strong, crying and blubbering like a baby in front of my baby! I should have been the one giving him courage and strength to go through this big change, but instead my amazing little boy was the one giving it to me. I can't believe how hard it is to let him grow, to face his fears alone, and trust that he can do it.