It's all good. . . .

I think we've settled in nicely, to being a family of four. It took me about 5-6 days to adjust to having Paul gone (he is still working with his friend, doing some construction), but Ryan, Kathryn and I found our groove. It's been a lot of fun and not as hard as I thought it would be. What I am finding the hardest is dealing with a 2 year old unpredictable moods. Boy I thought I was moody! Not even close to the mood swings of this two year old! Fortunately they are short and usually redirect-able within a few minutes. I think I have said this before, even though it's a challenge, when I think back on his ups and downs, I love it. It's an honor to watch this little man grow and being two is part of his journey.

My MRI's were negative. Headaches practically gone and if I do have one I usually know why, i.e too tired, hungry, thirsty, etc. The blood pressure medications are being tapered down and tomorrow I do a follow up with the neurologist, hopefully last time I ever have to see him.

Kathryn is approaching 8 weeks old. She is such a calm little soul. I caught the picture below yesterday. In awe that she can just fall asleep anywhere. She even slept through Joey barking her head off when the diaper service brought this weeks clean diapers. Joey was not even 5 feet away from her - going nuts at the person at our door. I love being her Mom and really look forward to our adventures together to come.

Ryan at the fair

This has become a fun routine of mine. Ryan sits next to me as I cook some sort of weekend breakfast, this day it was one of my nostalgic favorites - ricotta pancakes. And I know, I know.... he is sitting next to a potentially hot coffee pot, a potentially hot toaster, within inches of a block full of knives and an arm length away from a hot stove. All major NO NO's! Oh and not to mention that he could fall off the counter. Ugh, now that I see it all written down, I might have to modify how we do this.

All Grins

Kathryn, with her first on camera smile. Taken 9/6/09. Believe it or not, she has been smiling for weeks, but with no predictability... this is the first time I got it on camera at 5 weeks and 2 days old.

Ryan's first captured smile, taken 9/19/07. He was 7 weeks and he made us work for those first smiles and coo's!

A mess

I like to be organized and am quickly realizing that while I can try to continue that, if it doesn't happen, I just have to let it go. My house is a mess, laundry situation a mess, yard is a mess.... on and on. And truly, I would love to just not care about any of it. So many have told me that babies are this young and precious for such a short time and I know that. I get that. I will work on it - the not caring. There will be a day, in the future where I will have the time and energy to do what's gotta get done! I did see a neurologist about 10 days ago. He thinks (as do I) the headaches are just about my body trying to recover from the onslaught of that high blood pressure and post child birth. He did think a brain MRI was a good idea just to rule out any thing bad. That was done 8 days ago and because of phone tag and the neuro's office being closed more that I thought it would be, I don't have the results yet. I am assuming no news is the best news. On the bright side, I have needed very little pain medication (including Tylenol or Ibuprofen) for headache control. I still have some mild headaches, but they are just a mild nuisance, nothing I am to concerned about. I'm happy about that. As far as life with two babies goes.... it goes. I enjoy it. It's happy chaos. It's fun. It's tiring... etc. Paul is helping a friend finish up a construction project and is gone 8-10 hours a day. Boy was I lucky to have him home as long as I did. The time FLIES by every day taking care of Ryan and Kathryn. Kathryn continue to grow like a weed and is lovingly giving me some 4 hour stretches of sleep. She is also smiling and cooing - making me just melt to goo inside. There is nothing better than a babies genuine smile, in response to someone smiling at her. Ryan is a talking machine and starting to develop a sense of humor. He is so gentle with Kathryn and wants to "help" all the time. He's a good sleeper, good eater, and just a good kid, in general.

Pictured below:

The 3 that are in that bed are the 3 that don't belong there! It's a glimpse into an early morning here. Thankfully 2 of the 3 don't sleep with us - Joey is the one that tries her best to be on the bed as much as possible!

Go DAWGS!