Reminiscing (Part 1)

So Mikaela has been wanting to look at pics of herself when she was a baby (and hear herself talk when she was a baby :) ) I'll get to her in a following post--I just couldn't help but remember little man's hair stages :)

Was It Worth It?

So, I just can't help myself--maybe it was the couple of months past when I didn't take hardly any pictures at all. It's just that once I get going, I realize how much I really like taking pics, and I have a really hard time stopping :) Thank goodness for kids who force me to be more balanced whether I want it or not :) So--was it worth it? Worth what, you ask? Worth the 50 mosquito bites I got in the 20 minutes we were outside so I could take these pictures. I think so :)

Our Little Lovey at One Month

I can't believe little miss is already one month old! So I finally made it outside for her first photo session :) It's really hard taking pictures of babies and kids by yourself--especially when MJ and EM are whining for me to come back in the whole time :) And it was a kind of bright and windy outside for my little tender-eyed girl. Oh well--here's some of what I was able to capture. Hopefully we'll have more photo ops soon!

Grandpa Knape's 85th B-Day Party

This past Sunday, we went down the road to celebrate Eric's grandfather's 85th birthday. It was held at Eric's Uncle Gregg's clinic. MJ and EM had a blast looking at all the horses and running around all over the place :)

My Sweet Boy With His Cute New Haircut

The Hard Life

The Baby Scale

Kind of random, but I forgot about this pic (KL at 10 days). This is what Jackie (our midwife) uses to weigh tiny babies in. I just think it's pretty cool but for some reason always forget about taking a picture :)

Our First Fam of 5 Pics

Friends

On Monday, Mikaela's friend, Elyona, turned 5 and had an impromptu tea party with us. She had quite the beautiful spread of little treats and tea (thanks a lot to her oldest brother and sister)! Unfortunately, I didn't get to get a good picture, as I was dealing with my point-and-shoot and holding Kerith :) MJ wasn't really interested in the tea or food--she mainly just wanted a piece of chocolate :) After the tea party, everyone ended up playing in the water outside. I think Elijah enjoyed that part more than anyone--he definitely wasn't ready when I made him come inside :)

A Little More on Easter

Last Sunday after church, we went down the road to Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Gregg's house. Mikaela and Elijah both had a lot of fun playing with all the other kids and hunting for eggs and toys. Although I do think Elijah actually had more fun "batting" at the eggs that were hanging from the trees :)

More importantly, we got to share with Mikaela that Easter Sunday is the day we set aside to celebrate something we've talked about many times before--that we are sinners, so God had to send His son, Jesus, to die on the cross to cover our sins; but He didn't stay dead--He arose and is alive and lives in Heaven with God. She gets very excited to tell us back that Jesus isn't dead--He's in Heaven with God :)

I'll leave you with a few more pics of my cuties!

A Couple of Easter Pics

Art

Unfortunately, this is NOT the kind of art that makes me happy, but I thought I should have some pics for memories later on :)

My Other Sweet Girl

Tonight we were watching "Swiss Family Robinson," and they were on the ship doing something. So Mikaela told me that when she used to be a man she used to do that too :)

Pure Sweetness

Uh oh--looks like we might have to get out the paci after all

:(

Daddy's New Way of Entertaining

Visitors/Sweet Memories

Last Saturday, we had visits from Uncle Jon-Jon, Aunt Lindsey, Evan and Emma and then later on from Grandma F and Granddaddy. MJ and EM still don't quite know what to make of Uncle Jon-Jon, so they were a little stand-off'ish', but Evan had fun playing with "new" toys, and I got to see and hold Emma for the first time. Then Grandma F and Granddaddy came with balls with the intent of tiring out MJ and EM, but I'm not sure who was more tired afterward :)

This past week went well! So far, Kerith has been a pretty easy baby. I think Elijah prepared us very well by getting up so much at night :) Mikaela LOVES to snuggle with Kerith and touch her hands and try to open her eyes when she wants to talk to her :) so I have to watch fairly closely. Then, I was very pleasantly surprised when Elijah asked me multiple times this week to hold Kerith! It is so cute; he'll hold out his hands, and I'll ask him if he wants to hold Kerith, and he shakes his head yes :) There was one day when I kept asking him if he was done, and he kept telling me uh-uh (no). After a while I thought he was probably really meaning yes, so I tried to pick her up, and he put his arms over her, making it very clear he wasn't finished holding her yet :)

And I just couldn't help myself--I haven't had to clean out poopy diapers in a long time now, so I've already started putting little miss over the sink to do her business :) The amazing thing is that she knows what to do! I don't expect to catch them all, but it's really nice to have some in the sink rather than having to clean out a diaper :)

Here's a little Mikaela funny. Both MJ and EM are very intrigued with the peri bottle. So last night, we were getting them ready for bed. We told MJ to go to the potty, so she does. Next thing, Eric and I are both watching her, trying not to laugh b/c she'd grabbed the bottle and was "washing" herself off just like Mommy :) She's also started "nursing" her baby again--still at her stomach :)

Munchkin Mischief

While I was busy doing something today, this is what I walked into the kitchen to find. Mikeala kept telling me to come into the kitchen b/c Elijah was getting into bags--I didn't realize she meant my Ziplock bags. He had pulled out three different sized bags! And for those of you who know me, yes, I picked up each bag individually, lining them up and put them back in their proper spot :) Elijah was trying to help me out by stuffing them back into the box :) The spilled raisins are nothing new--it was just an added bonus today :)

Kerith's First Couple of Days

Well, Monday and Tuesday, Eric's parents kept MJ and EM to give us a little break and some time alone with Kerith. So Wednesday was our first full day with all three little munchkins. It went well--I think we were very ready just to see them again and have them back home. And then today was my first day with all three by myself. Overall, not too bad. MJ and EM played most of the day, and I got a nap with Kerith when EM took his nap. I think Elijah is adjusting pretty well. He still tries to get me to pick him up, but he's kind of starting to get used to me telling him to hold my hand and walk with me :) I'll have help tomorrow though, and Eric will be here for the weekend, so I am thankful for that.

Here are some pictures of Kerith's first few days here. She has been the typical newborn so far--eats, sleeps, pees and poops :) I tried to get her to stay awake some today b/c she decided to wake pretty often last night--we'll see if it helps out any tonight :) I had her in the swing earlier, and Mikaela and Elijah were both sitting on the floor next to her trying to swing her way too hard and get her to talk to them :) Elijah's still not sure what to think. He did get pretty concerned yesterday when Jackie came over to prick Kerith's heel. She was crying pretty decently, and he came over to "see what he could do." :)

So where did the name Kerith come from? Well, in I Kings 17, the Lord commands Elijah to proclaim a drought and then tells him to hide by the Brook Cherith, and the ravens fed Elijah there. So we just changed the Ch to a K :)

Introducing...

Another sweet baby girl, Kerith Love Axelson! (pronounced care'-ith). This little sweetie decided she wanted to stay in Mommy 2 weeks longer than her sister and brother. So she was born today, March 23 at 7:56 am (her actual due date!). She came in at 8 lbs. 5 oz!! and was 20.5 inches long--so definitely my biggest baby thus far :)

So here's the story:
Kerith has actually been teasing me somewhat for about a month now. But around 3 this morning, I started having some fairly strong contractions anywhere from 7-10 minutes apart. I was somewhat monitoring them for about 2 hours--still trying not to get my hopes up b/c I'd been teased so many times already. Finally around 5, I was thinking these really could be the real thing, so I told Eric I was going to take a shower to see if they (the contractions) hung around or not. They did, so I decided to clean the bathroom just to make sure they were still coming. They did! So around 5:45, we called our midwife, Jackie. I had really strong, hard close-together contractions from around 6-7:30. Jackie arrived a couple of minutes after 7. Around 7:40 or so, I had a very strong contraction that broke my water, and it was all pushing from there! I had to push really hard off and on for 15-20 minutes, and my little munchkin finally popped out at 7:56! She was much harder to get out than her brother was, but I guess that's what happens when you weigh a solid pound and a half more! We'd prepared Mikaela for a few weeks now and asked if she wanted to watch the baby come out. So it was cool for her to have a front-row seat getting to watch her much longed-for sister come out. She wasn't really a fan of the mess or Mommy's grunting during pushing, and she asked where the baby's clothes were :) but overall, she was super excited to have the baby come today and that it was a sister.

My thoughts this time around:
1) I'm sooo thankful the Lord gave us another wonderful birth without any complications and a nice, pink healthy baby to go along with it.
2) Five-hour laboring HURTS as compared to the gradual day and a half laboring with EM. But this was good for me, as it helps to humble me. I would definitely still do it again, but I think I have a lot more compassion now for people who labor hard for a much longer period of time. I'm very grateful right now for only an hour and a half of really hard laboring.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience, but I'm very glad it's over and Kerith is out :) Sorry for the phone pics, but that's all I could muster up for today--I'm sure there will be many more within the next few days!

My Little Jumping Beans

Taking the cushions off the couch and jumping has become one of Mikaela's and Elijah's favorite pasttimes. I think Eric got more of a kick out of this one than anybody though :) Sorry--it's a little on the long side!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

So my little man sees Mikaela putting on some sort of shoes all the time--why can't he do the same? :)

Pet Food

So for the past few weeks, Mikaela has slowly pulled all the maroon trim from around this basket, torn it into small pieces and puts it in little containers as in these pics or into my muffin pan. Didn't you know it makes great food for all her "amimals?" :) I'm curious to see what their food will be in a day or two when all the maroon trim is gone :)

Little Man Update

Well, little man is officially 20-months-old now! Very soon, he will be a big brother, so we've been working hard on some training issues. The biggest thing is potty-training. We've actually been doing this since he was about 2 months, but we really hit it hard the past couple of months. So far, he has done really well. Most days he doesn't have any accidents, but other days, it's another story :) I haven't taken many pics the past month b/c he really does best when he doesn't have any bottoms on. Then he can just go sit on the potty when he knows he needs to go. I will eventually get around to putting underwear on him, but right now it just causes more frustration on my part. One--he can't pull them down by himself; two--he somehow thinks it's free reign to just go in his underwear :)

The other thing has been getting him to sleep in his "big boy" bed. This has been 10 times worse than potty-training b/c it deprives me and Eric both of our sleep :) But, we have made lots of progress. Normally, he'll go down pretty easily now (except for tonight :) ), but he still gets up 3-4 times during the night. The good thing is that now we can usually just put him back in bed and he'll sleep for a couple more hours. The bad thing is that we still get woken up every few hours to go put him back in bed :) I think we're definitely prepared for baby #3 :)

Elijah's vocabulary is growing steadily. He's not real clear on much, but I notice more and more that he really been trying to talk and communicate better! He copies pretty much anything Mikaela does from jumping on the couch to running around the house to cooking. He LOVES a show on PBS called "Word World" and would watch it the entire day if I would let him :) He asks multiple times during the day to watch it :)

He is so funny and cute but is also starting to display some unpleasant characteristics :( Mikaela really doesn't like it when he has to get a spanking and will start crying too. It's good to see she cares :)

I think he's going to make a great big brother. He loves to pull up my shirt, kiss the baby, and then pull my shirt back down :) Before long, you'll get to see pics of him holding his little sibling!

I Do!

Little man is starting to repeat more and more of what we say! Here's one of my favorites right now :)

Another Mikaela Funny

Ok--so I just couldn't put off writing about this. This morning we were eating breakfast, and MJ wanted to be a "princess." So, of course, that means she has to adorn herself with all her bracelets, necklaces, crown, etc. Well, she also had her phone in her purse and had it out. So here's the conversation that followed:

MJ: Mommy, where's your phone?

Me: Right here on the table.

MJ: Wif your toothpaste?

Me: Huh?

MJ: Wif your toothpaste.

Me: What?

MJ: Wif your toothpaste.

Me: I don't understand what you mean. With my toothpaste?

MJ: Yes!

Me: (thinking, thinking, ...lightbulb going off) Oh! You mean my bluetooth?!

MJ: Yes!