Happy Friday

I snuck a shot of each of the boys just now to update you on what we're up to this peaceful morning:

Jamesie peacefully taking his morning nap.  This scene is relatively new, in the last few weeks.  James had a (very) rough go of it his first few months. Finally the doctor prescribed baby Zantac, and I swear, he is a different baby than the one we brought home!  No more screaming fits, he peacefully drifts off for all of his naps, AND...he's been sleeping about 10 hours at night.  These are huge improvements around here.  Plus, now that he can eat all of his meals, he's packing on the pounds and looking chubbier every day-- i love it! 

We are sticking close to home for the next few days as I try to move James to a 4-hour schedule.  I can't believe he's almost 16 weeks old already.  I have had to wake him up from long naps for every feeding for about the last week, so I'm going to try to transition him to 4 hours, which means fewer but longer naps, and fewer meals, but I think he might be ready for it. When I did this with sean I just remember it being very haphazard and feeling like I was a little out of control...anyone out there have any good tips for me this time around?

Sean continues to be fantastic.  Here he is in "room time" this morning, peacefully playing with his block-trains.  He has room time for one hour every morning, basically instead of his morning nap.  He has grown to really like this time by himself to rest or play (and suck his thumb, which is what I think he really likes!).  Just this morning we were drawing and he said "All done drawing.  Upstairs.  Room."  OK.  We will go upstairs.  Sean's big development is the full-time use of underpants instead of a diaper during roomtime. We're still working on a few aspects of potty training, but he's got down most of it and his little mickey mouse underpants could not be cuter.  Speaking of which:

Sleeping schedules, underpants and room time-- that's about all we've got going over here.  Happy Friday!

Love Languages-- Baby Edition

Some of you may have read Gary Chapman's book The Five Love Languages, which tends to be popular pre-wedding reading these days. Cody and I perused it before our wedding, and we still talk frequently about our's, our family members', co-workers, and now kids' love languages. If you haven't read it, a butchered summary is as follows: Each one of us experience love in different ways. We each have certain ways we naturally express love and generally like to receive love in that same way. The author breaks it down into five areas (noting you can be strong in one area, or a combination of 2 or 3): Gifts, Words of Encouragement (or praise, I can't remember), Physical Touch, Acts of Service, and Quality Time. The book is supposed to help married couples communicate better, but in my family we frequently apply the theories to other people in our lives to help us understand them better and express appreciation, if not love, better. For example, my boss is not in any way a "words of encouragement" type, so I never expect to get verbal praise for my work. He's a major acts of service, so if he's happy with my work, I can usually judge it by him buying lunch or getting me a Starbucks on the way to the office (that is, back when there was an "office" for me to go to :)).

Cody and I (and Denise) have discussed many members of our family extensively. I am most certainly words of encouragement, and Cody tries to verbalize praise for me so I feel good. Just the other day he told me our house has been looking great since I started to stay at home, and that comment has, obviously, stuck with me! Cody is Acts of Service--- if I tell him a project he's been working on looks great, its in one ear and out the other. But, the nights that I plan dinner, make it before he gets home and make him a special dessert (dinner is usually cody's area), I can tell how flattered he is that I would serve him like that. Denise is the ultimate in gift-love-language. She not only feels loved when people spend time and energy to pick out a great gift for her, but she is great at expressing love through the perfect gifts for others, and we are always being showered with useful, pretty, fun, I've-been-wanting-that, or I-never-would-have-thought-of-that-for-myself wonderful gifts. In case you're wondering, here are a few others we've discussed: Meg is most certainly Quality Time (hence her affinity for board games--we all get to sit down together without the TV on for a few hours); If Denise is the ultimate example of Gifts, then Jamie Groeber is the same in Acts of Service. One can't leave a dirty dish or an unfinished bathroom around him long before he's humbly, quietly fixing the situation. I think Lisa might also be Gifts because she hasn't come to our house once in the last 3 years without armfuls of them, and I always love what she picks out, which means she has put thought and energy into it. My mom is Words of Encouragement, which is probably where I developed my love language from. My dad (I think) is Quality Time, evidenced by his anxiety whenever anyone wants to go to bed on vacation! As for physical touch, I think that is a more rare love language, and the best example we have of that has to be our friends Luke and Andrea who are both Physical Touch, and luckily married to each other! The idea of identifying love languages is to help express your love, affection or appreciation to someone in the language they understand--and conversely, when to recognize when someone else is trying to express love, affection or appreciation for you in a way that isn't necessarily your love language. I would love to hear what you think your love language is!

If you've made it this far into this post, congrats. Now we get to the cute stuff. I have been heard more than once over the last few months say "I think Sean's love language is Physical Touch." He's constantly patting, hugging, kissing and holding hands with James. He loves to hug and kiss mom and dad, and he loves holding hands while watching TV, on walks or in the car. He's cuddly and sweet and I LOVE it. Here are some love languages documented:

Physical Touch: holding hands with Daddy in the car-- just becuase.

Physically loving on Jamesie

Again . . .

and again.

Sean is trying to speak to Denise is her language.  He made her a gift during art time the other day and is proudly displaying it for the camera.

I'll take it for Words of Encouragement!

Spending Quality Time eating watermelon with his friend Gabe.

This has nothing to do with Acts of Service-- I just thought it was adorable :)

Parenting Lessons from a Monkey

So this might sound like I've gone off the mommy-deep end, but lately when I watch Curious George with Sean in the morning (on PBS at 8:00 a.m.), I've been noticing a lot of great qualities, worthy of me emulating, in the Man in the Yellow Hat.  The Man is always patient with George and his antics, never gets angry, and never resorts to that mean-spirited biting sarcasm so many kids shows are full of these days.  And, even without the sarcasm or rude, degrading comments, he's funny! (A reminder that our humor is not dependent on degrading others-- hint hint, Disney Channel).  The Man's patience and gentleness with George are to be admired, especially as I find myself in more and more situations needing patience and gentleness as we go headfirst into Sean's terrific twos :).  For instance, just the other day at mass as I was enjoying a well prepared homily on my favorite gospel reading I hear Sean's little voice with the impending warning: "Mommy, pee pee!"  Off we ran to the bathroom, in the middle of the homily, only to find when we get there that Sean had "no pee pee" to speak of.  I was a little less than patient at that moment.  Only to find myself further tested at the moment of consecration when I hear the little warning voice, "Mommy, pee pee" yet again.  Off we go (again), and luckily for both of us, this time was not a false alarm. 

I've noticed on Curious George that The Man never assigns blame to George where it is not due, as we all too often do (Sean is just learning about the potty--he doesn't tell me he has to go knowing I'm going to miss my favorite homily or the consecration).  He never saddles George with a vengeful, mean, or disruptive purpose for honest curiousity and good intentions-gone-wrong (Sean doesn't know taking apart ALL of the post-it notes isn't what you're supposed to do with them (after all, they look like stickers, right?)).  If George makes a muk of things in a good natured attempt to learn or help with something, the Man simply steps back, takes a breath, helps George clean up and helps him accomplish whatever he was trying to do, in the right way.  Its funny though, when you watch the show, you can actually see The Man get a little flustered in the height of George's antics, but then make the decision to remain calm, and help George learn something from the situation. 

As Sean and I continue to navigate his spirited and curious personality, I pray for patience and grace to teach him well and love him well, and I might even find myself asking, WWTMITYHD? (get it?).

Martha, Martha

Yesterday the Gospel reading at mass was my favorite reading-- that of Mary and Martha hosting when Jesus came for a visit.  My patron Saint is Martha-- Sean's first due date was on Martha's feast day, and both of my grandmothers (and my middle-namesakes) are Martha.  When we first moved to Charleston and studied for the Bar exam all summer, while suffering our first miscarriage, looking for jobs and trying to help the Groebers renovate an old house, I was (understandably) anxious about many things, like Martha.  We left for Columbia to take the Bar exam on a Sunday.  That was exactly 3 years ago, as the readings that day were the same as yesterday.  I was in mass almost shaking with nerves about the exam (which, I had all but given up studying for in the previous two weeks due to the grief of losing our first baby). When Jesus said "Martha, Martha," you are anxious about many things, but all you need is ONE thing, it spoke straight to my heart, and I tried to let go of the anxiety of the impending exam and everything else weighing on my mind. 

I love this reading for so many reasons.  Martha, corrected by our Lord in this reading, goes on later in the Gospel (John, Ch. 11) to make one of the greatest professions of faith, when she meets Jesus after her brother Lazarus's death. She says "whatever you ask of God, God will give you . . . Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is comign to the world."   Like Martha, my brother also died an untimely death, and Like Martha, I believe that Jesus will one day raise him and we will live together again with the Lord.  Besides this obvious parrallel, I like that Martha is redeemed in her faith when she comes to Jesus this second time, after being made somewhat an example of in yesterday's reading.  We all make mistakes, mess up, and are less contempletive, holy or pious than we should be.  We all also have room and time for redemption, professing our honest faith to the Lord after we have made a mistake.  And what happens after Martha's honest profession?  Her faith is rewarded with Jesus raising Lazarus from death. 

Cody and I also especially enjoy this reading because it speaks of hospitality, which is a value we decided early on in our relationship would be exalted in our marriage.  Our house is continually a work in progress-- we don't have a table big enough to seat our friends, there are consistently baseballs, golf balls and lots of babies' books scattered about the family room, and even more piles of adults' papers on desks and counters.  But, we value being hospitable and like having friends and family over anyway.  Like Martha, we can often get caught up in the physical tasks (and anxieties) of hosting guests-- cooking the meal, washing dishes, cleaning the house, etc etc, but we need to remember that like Mary, what our guests really need is our attention and time being spent sitting and listening to them.  Our guests will remember a loving, attentive conversation long after they forget about the messy laundry room they have to wade through to get to the unfinished guest bathroom. 

On a cute note, after mass yesterday Sean said to me several times "Marsa, Marsa."  During mass he listened attentively and everytime the priest said "Martha" he would turn to me with wide eyes and gasp -- so sweet. 

Just for fun...sweet baby smiling at the camera :)

Handsome (x2)

Sometimes I just smile thinking about my life.  This was one of those moments.

Just Thinking...

Happy.

Sean's second birthday was maybe the most magical day he's ever experience.  Since he doesn't really know what birthdays are yet, so he didn't know what hit him and it took a few days to explain we don't have cake and presents every day.  Here are a few shots of the day:

It started with cake for breakfast (coffee cake, but with candles) on a boat on the lake in the mountains.  Some of Sean's favorite things combined in one.

Next was swimming with dad-- so fun.  Aren't they both handsome?

Mommy and Jamesie were on the boat too...along with GG, Dada Meg and Tim. 

Home from the boat, it was time for presents... a huge pile of them (mostly from GG and Dada :))!

The presents turned out to be sean's favorite things in the world... Baskee-ball (above), a Bee-ball (baseball) Tee, a tunnel to crawl through, a tennis-ball-catching game, a swing-- are you getting the theme here-- sport and movement!  Our boy is all boy and loves any kind of sport.  He also got new crayons and markers and a horse backpack to keep them in, which he carried around all weekend (and all week-- bringing it to the doctor's office with us a few days ago!)

Next GG gave everyone bubbles and Sean just thought he went to heaven.  His favorite people blowing bubbles with him for hours in the yard .  Life could not get better.  

Then, we introduced Sean to sparklers, fireworks and snakes.  Oh my, he could have kept going with the snakes all day and all night. Just look at that face!

The absolutely sweetest moment of the day came when Cody and I gave him our gift of a baseball glove and baseball.  Sean loves watching baseball and comes to our law-league softball games every week, so he sees other people using gloves and catching balls.  When we showed him how to put it on and catch a ball he just stood amidst all the presents and wrapping paper and said softly (almost to himself), "Happy." 

New Design

I'm tinkering around with blogger's new designs today.  Does anyone know how to make the title picture a bit smaller? 

A Festive Fourth

We spent the Fourth, and Sean's birthday, in the mountains with GG and Dada-- Here's Dada with the boys in their matching flag shirts (Thanks to aunt annabelle!)

At church (in the mountains) on the 4th.  Sean distributed red white and blue flag and star stickers to all of us before church.  You can see Cody's in the picture, but he decided to take mine back for himself during mass.  

And what would the 4th be without a messy watermelon!?

Happy Birthday Baby!

Two years ago today the doctors pulled that big boy pictured above out of my belly-- hard to believe!  I honestly don't know when he got so big-- or turned from a baby to boy, but he looks so grown up now, it makes me a little sad.  Two years later our baby has a baby brother--amazing!

When I was pregnant with Sean we knew he would be born via c-section due to placenta previa.  My whole pregnancy I wasn't allowed to do any sort of exercise or lifting due to the previa, and that kind of sendentary lifestyle was pretty hard for me to get used to.  I would just think about the amazing little baby I would have soon enough though and it would make it a little easier.  Sean's c-section was scheduled for July 3, even thought his due date wasn't until July 13, which was actually moved up from his original date of July 29.  On July 1st I went to a lunch/baby shower at Cody's office then came home to work on the nursery and take a nap.  Cody and Aubrey Anne worked on getting the car seat installed later that night, and when I came out to look at it, I was a little "dissapointed" with Cody's method of installation, and my pregnancy hormones got the best of me and I broke down and cried and cried and sobbed because I didn't think he put it in right and I didn't want to bring my baby home in a defunct carseat.  Luckily Aubrey Anne's engineering mind was able to figure it out to my satisfaction :).

A few hours later and I started having contractions in the middle of the night.  Due to the previa we had strict instructions to call the hospital at any signs of labor because it would be very dangerous to me and the baby to go into labor.  I waited for an hour and counted 4-5 contractions, which was the magic number to call the hospital.  I woke Cody up and said "I've just had four contractions--" to which Cody promptly said "it'll be OK," rolled over and went back to sleep.  Well, in that case, I thought, I'll just go have something to eat since i'm likely not getting back to sleep.  In the very back of my mind I thought, if I have to go in and have the baby this morning, I'm not allowed to eat anything.  (But I was really hungry).  I went to the bathroom to make sure all was OK, and found that I had started bleeding, which at full term with a full previa, means surgery asap.  So, I skipped the bowl of cereal (still really hungry) and went to really wake cody up (turning on all the lights and announcing we are going to have a baby at 3:00 a.m.!) and get things rolling.  Cody, usually cool as a cucumber in all situations was a little rattled, putzing around our room trying to get ready.  At one point he said to me "What T-shirt should I wear??"  (?????????).  Eventually we called the hospital, they told us to come on in.

Once at the hospital things had calmed down a bit and what I remember more than anything was (still) being really hungry.  At one point while we were hooked up to the fetal monitor a resident came in and asked if I was comfortable (tip: never ask a very pregnant woman about to have a baby if she's comfortable-- the answer will at best be "no," and at worse involve some explitives).  I told him I would only be comfortable if he could get me something to eat--preferably breakfast food-I'm thinking pancakes or french toast. I said I either want to go home and have breakfast or to have surgery to have this baby.  The doctors preferred the second option, and by 7:30 a.m. we were in surgery (still hungry)!

A few short minutes later and we got a glimpse of our dear baby boy-- sweet, skinny, soft-- i was immediately in love.  Cody was able to hold him immediately and followed him to get weighed in and cleaned up.  He brought our new baby to me and I just cried as the doctors stitched me up.  I cried pure joy--it was the most intense feeling I have ever known. 

A few hours later and we called our sweet boy "Sean Brendan."  Strong and sweet sounding, just like him.  Named after my big brother Sean and St. Brendan the navigator, a brave and courageous priest from Ireland, we knew it suited him as soon as we said it out loud. 

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading SB's long birth story, two years later.  Unfortunately, today he and I are a little sick with a virus, but hopefully he'll feel good enough to play with some new toys later.  He has been asking about "cake?" at every mention of a birthday so far today, so I think he'll be ok.  He is wonderful, and I feel so privileged that God chose me to by his mama.  What a delight these two years have been!

World Cup Baby

Sean was born during the 2008 Summer Olympics, which was a great way to spend my maternity leave and late night nursing sessions.  Jamesie, not to dissapoint, was born on the eve of the 2010 World Cup, and much to my husband's envy, I have been able to watch almost any game I've wanted to while home with the boys (Sean now comes downstairs in the morning and immediately says "more soccer. more soccer."  He even has a GOALLLLL dance...its amazingly cute).  So, in the spirit of the World Cup Jamesie broke out his Puma track suit the other day:

While we're at it, lets not forget the little tennis tournament called Wimbeldon that's going on right now.  Jamesie also has a classic Roger Federer outfit he sported as a tribute to Federer's early exit the other day. 20 some years from now I can just see him in his white tennis sweater on Centre Court!

I can't leave this post without a shot or two of our other little soccer fanatic in his World Cup outfit.  GOALLLLLLLL!!!!!  He even did the Landon Donovan slide the other day in the family room.  He's such a champ.