Easter and Week 4

I grew up in a home where life was incredibly fun and joyful. We loved one another unconditionally (because we didn’t know there was another choice) and we enjoyed spending time as a family. I want that for my two kiddos. I want them to love God, to love each other, to have immense joy in everything they do, and at the end of their childhood I want them to be able to look back and say… that was amazing! I know that is how I feel. <3

Easter Traditions. Now that Grace is 2.5 we wanted to begin passing on some of the Easter Traditions I grew up with and loved. The first was the Easter Basket Hunt. Uncle Taylor and I went on a hunt each year for our Easter Baskets. There were always clues that led us to another clue and then another and eventually the basket! Of course we wanted to make it two year old appropriate so the clues were pictures of the next place she needed to go look. All the places were in Mimi and Boppy’s house. It was so much fun watching her try to figure out the game we were playing. At the end the basket appeared full of princess gear. It was a great morning.

After nap time we headed back over to Mimi and Boppys for an afternoon filled with Easter Egg collecting, fancy table decorating (Grace picked out all the decorations and requested to make it “Fancy like Fancy Nancy” a book we have been reading, and a YUMMY family dinner.

So yes, we had a marvelous Easter. I love the beginnings of making family traditions that they can be excited about each year as the holidays approach, but mostly this Easter I am so thankful for a God who is alive and has the power to forgive us and help us heal, goodness knows we could not do it on our own.

The rest of the week went by so quickly. Isaac is already 8 lbs! I can’t believe he is growing so quickly. We are out of newborn diapers and clothes and he now wears 0-3 month outfits and size 1 diapers. We have also begun to switch over to cloth already! We use about 4-5 cloth diapers a day, only when we are at home because I am not ready yet to deal with accidents, two kids, and being out of the house. Soon though. :) He has started having a more regular schedule, although he is still pretty flexible to go with whatever we need to do. He is usually awake from 7-9am. He sleeps 9-11. He is awake 11-1 sleeps most of the afternoon then is awake again 7-9pm then goes to bed. We are still getting up 2 times in the middle of the night to feed, but he is pretty quick and we are all back asleep within 30 minutes. Grace wanted to do some G art this week, so we used purple glitter and painted. She also helped me make homemade pesto using basil that we grew in our window garden. She is such a big help these days.

The other big adventure we had this week was heading to the Life and Science Museum in Durham. Yes I took my 2.5 year old and my 3 week old to the museum by myself! I did meet a friend there, but she has 2 under 3 as well… so we were quite the sight. hehe

All in all in was a wonderful week. I am so glad that we have already slowed down so much in this busy life. I can’t imagine it going any faster then it already is. I am so thankful for these two amazing children I was blessed with and this family. I love when Grace starts listing our family…. “Our family is Mama and Isaac and Daddy, and Mimi and Boppy and Tay Tay. All these are in my fam…i…lllly” I love how she says it. Kids. You both are very loved, never forget it. This life we have, it is pretty great. <3

Week 3

Three weeks complete as a family of four. Can’t believe our little man is already 3 weeks old! Wasn’t I just pregnant yesterday? In three weeks I feel like I have learned so much about managing multiple children, still making time for God, making time as a couple, making sure my toddler is engaged and learning, and making sure my baby is being held enough, feed enough, talked to enough. Wow… then in the exact same moment I am overwhelmed with how much more I have to learn. This mom thing… it is challenging. Rewarding, amazing, so many moments to cherish and yet at the same time the hardest, most frustrating, exhausting thing I have ever done. I wouldn’t change a moment. Seriously.

We started the week at Waverly Park. It was a beautiful day. The kind of Sunday where we are all together and everything just seems so right. It reminds me to stop and think about where we have come from. What it took to get here. How we had to become broken for God to become our center and there for begin creating this beautiful life. I love this quote I read. “God is the great recycler.  He takes the broken, tattered, worn out pieces of our journeys and recycles them in to His masterpiece. He takes us from broken to restored and truly can bring beauty from ashes.” Our story is certainly turning out to be beauty from a terrible mess of ugly ashes. How glorious is our God? Amazing.

Grace is madly in love with our little Isaac Levi. I love how her first question when she wakes up is “where is Isaac?” and when she meets a new friend she now says “Hi I am Grace. I have a brother. His name is Isaac.” We have worked really hard to be intentional about making sure Grace feels connected and like this little guy is an exciting part of our life now and not a burden. Trust me it is work to make sure she feels this way because babies take time and energy away. It is a constant minute by minute process – and I sometimes fall short trust me! But I am trying the best I can, and it seems to be working. :)

Isaac Levi. He is such a sweet cuddler, fantastic at nursing well and quickly, easy going and chill baby. With Grace we had all kinds of issues from the start. Her bilirubin levels were low, we had to bring home a “glow worm” machine, we had to go into the doctors almost every day for 2 weeks, we continued to have breast feeding issues throughout, low weight, and medication for her hemangiomas – soo it was only fitting that Isaac would have his own thing as well.

2-10 out of every 100 babies fail the hearing test administered to every baby in the hospital. We were one of those 2-10 babies. Two weeks later we had to return to the hospital to have his hearing re-checked. We were told by doctors and nurses alike that almost all of those babies will pass the second screening because its just wax build up that clears out after they are born…. Well that tiny percentage that doesn’t pass the second test. That is us as well. Isaac has full hearing in his left ear. His right ear is picking up some sounds, but it is not responding the way a typical ear should respond. We now have a full evaluation scheduled for next week. The first thing they will check is if there is fluid build up behind the ear drum. This will most likely need tubes to be drained. (90% of babies who make it this far turn out to have fluid build up) However, on the chance that it is actual hearing loss in his left ear they will evaluate if it is specific tones or frequencies which he can not hear or what exactly the issue is. This will most likely lead to the need for a hearing aid, or surgery. Of course we are hopeful and praying that it is fluid build up, but either way we realize what a gift this little man is to us and how God has big plans for him and has made him perfectly Isaac. Now if God will just give us wisdom as we make these decisions over the next few weeks about what the best course of action is for our little  man. The screening was not a favorite, but he was certainly peaceful and happy as soon as it was over. <3

We also added a new member to the family this past week. Meet Carl our Honda Civic. We think he is pretty handsome. AND he gets fantastic gas mileage… which makes him even better!

And finally just pictures of life this week. Tot school, sleeping baby, hiking class, silly toddler, more pictures in the middle of the night, and Mommy’s first preparation of dinner since Isaac was born. We had crockpot chicken with homegrown dill. YUM.

Finally we went to Easter Service on Saturday Night. We have tons of pictures from Easter Day but I will wait to post those until next week. It takes a lot of tries before we get a picture where both kids are still and happy. hehe. So here are 3 of our attempts. Happy Easter all. We worship a king who is alive! Take the time to celebrate!