Robert is thriving.  He eats almost all day long and I am finding out what mothers of boys mean when they talk about the children eating them out of house and home.  Just this morning for breakfast Robert had two bowls of cereal, a cereal bar, and a bowl of goldfish.  I don’t usually give him goldfish for breakfast but my gracious I hadn’t gotten to the grocery store yet and I didn’t have much else to feed him!  He is still as skinny as ever but with his evening routine of running circles around me in the kitchen and dining room, that comes as no surprise.  He is a bossy big brother.  Just last night Robert was watching a little tv show and he had been told that when it was over it’d be time to get ready for bed.  So as soon the show was over Robert approached Alex who was busy playing with his cars and said, “Come on, Alex, time to come to the couch and read the Bible.  Come on, Alex, let’s go.”  When Alex did not respond, Robert said, “Alex!  Alex, look at my eyes!  Look at my eyes, Alex!  It’s time to go to the couch!”  (The look at my eyes bit comes from us telling Robert to look us in the eyes when we are speaking to him. It’s always fun and humbling to discover what kind of things my children pick up from my words and actions.) Then Robert came to me in the kitchen and said, “Come on Mommy.  It’s time to sit on the couch and read the Bible and pray and then go to bed.”  I laughed and followed him to the couch.

Robert is also discovering how fun it can be to pee outside.  I think this is a phase (that perhaps lasts a life-time?) that all boys go through- a fascination of peeing outdoors and discovering new things to pee on and in.  Robert has so far confessed to peeing on the fence, on our firewood pile, in the wood chips that he and Alex play in, and inside the seat compartment of his green bike.  Ugh.

And now on to Alex.  Alex loves cars.  The first thing he does every single morning without fail is run into the living room and dump out his large basket filled with nothing but cars and starts arranging them and playing with them.  He never wants to come to the breakfast table to eat because he’s having so much fun with his cars.  Alex adores Robert and always has to be where Robert is.  If Robert is playing at the table, then Alex has to, too.  If Robert is playing with his bike, then Alex needs to play with a bike, too.  If Robert is on the swing set, then Alex has to be there, too.  You get the idea. It’s fun watching them play together.  Alex also feels the need to aggravate Robert.  He loves to steal a car from Robert and laughs and runs away with the car when Robert protests. It’s pretty funny but it can often become too rowdy, especially when Alex decides to throw the car and it hits Ben on the leg and leaves a nice little bruise.  While Alex is getting better and better with his words, he still has quite a bit of work to do.  He calls me “ommie” and Christopher “adda.”  He calls Robert “Bert” and is always very excited to see him.  Alex is finally warming up to Ben although he does still feel some jealousy there.  He really did hit Ben with a car yesterday and I could tell by the look on his face that not only did he realize how much trouble he was in but he also felt bad about hurting Ben.  Alex rubbed Ben’s head hoping to help him calm down.

Ben is three months old now.  He loves his big brothers.  Robert is very helpful and often plays with Ben and exclaims how much he loves Ben and  how cute Ben is and how he loves babies so much.  Ben smiles at Robert and laughs and usually seems comforted just by having Robert near.  It’s very sweet.  Ben is responding more and more to us.  If I smile at him, he smiles back at me.  He laughs and giggles when we play with him.  He’s such a good baby.  He can roll over from his stomach to his back and he can lift his head up very well.  He scoots from one end of his crib to the other and often is turned around in the opposite direction of how I laid him when I get him out of bed.  He’s growing up way too fast in my opinion.  I don’t want him to stay a baby forever but I do wish these stages could last a little bit longer.

We are enjoying our boys so much and we are so blessed to have them.  I never thought I’d be a mom of all boys but here I am and I love it.

From the French Reformed liturgy:

Do not fear, says the Lord, for I have redeemed you, I called you by your
name, you are mine. When the mountains shall depart, and the hills be
removed, says the Lord, my kindness shall not depart from you, neither
shall the covenant of my peace be removed. Little child, for you Jesus Christ came into the world, labored and suffered; for you, he went
through the agony of Gethsemane and the darkness of Calvary; for you,
he cried: « It is finished! »; for you, he died and for you he triumphed over
death; yes, for you, little child, the declaration holds true, We love God,
because he first loved us. Amen!

Our baby Alex is not a baby anymore. He turned two this past Friday. He was absolutely clueless as to what it meant to have a birthday but he sure did enjoy the large dump truck we bought him. And he knows how to hold up two fingers to show his age.

I always have such a difficult time writing about Alex. It’s not because of a lack of love for him.  I just can’t seem to find the words. We adore our Alex. He has such a chubby face that lights up frequently with his big adorable grin. He is happy and playful. He loves to read and play with his cars and trains. And thanks to Grandma Betsy he is crazy about buses.  Sometimes he throws his arms around my neck in a giant hug and just clings to me and it melts my heart.  He’s not a big kisser but he is very friendly and sweet and does give his hugs pretty freely.

Alex is such a smart little fellow.  He already knows the entire alphabet.  Not only can he say the letters but he can also recognize them all.  He can almost count to ten.  And his vocabulary is expanding rapidly.  We are so proud of him.

God has really blessed us with this little guy.  He has been a wonderful playmate for Robert and he was always such a good baby.  He is currently affected by the horrible “terrible twos” disease but he is still a very lovable boy and he brings so much joy to our lives daily.

Sunday afternoon we celebrated Alex’s birthday with lots and lots of family.  There were nine cousins running around (well, I guess seven really as two of those cousins are very small babies) and it was absolutely chaotic and wonderful.  I am so grateful that God has blessed us with this wonderful home that is big enough for all of us to fit in.  Alex enjoyed opening his presents and making a huge mess in his cake.  See what I mean?

Happy Birthday sweet Alexander.  We love you so very much.

From this

To this

Ben was born Tuesday, December 20th at 3:24 PM.  I was one day shy of being 40 weeks along.  That’s the longest I’ve ever been pregnant.  My entire third trimester was really tough for me.  My body was in nearly constant pain and I was so tired all the time.  On top of that we were trying to get our apartment packed up and get us moved and settled before Ben arrived.  By 38 weeks along, my doctor seemed to want to get Ben out as much as I did.  We tried a few little tricks that worked with my other two boys and my doctor felt confident that Ben would be born before the weekend was out.  I felt the same way.  But just in case, we scheduled an induction for Wednesday the 21st.  All they would do is break my water and my doctor believed that would be all it took.  I agreed as I knew I’d be 40 weeks along by then and I really wanted to be home with all of my boys on Christmas.  The day before my scheduled induction, Ben still had not arrived.  I was getting anxious about having to be at the hospital at 5:30 the next morning.  My doctor called at around 10:30 that morning asking if I wanted to be induced that day instead of the next.  Christopher and I agreed so we headed to the hospital.  The doctor broke my water at about 12:30 and immediately the contractions started coming.  I knew I was definitely in labor but it wasn’t bad yet and I figured I’d have lots of time so I sent Christopher to get some lunch.  Not 5 minutes after he left I was have to stop and breathe through the contractions and I called Christopher and told him to hurry.  He got back and we walked the hall for a bit and then watched a tv show.  The contractions kept picking up until I finally asked for an epi at around 3:00.  The nurse said that it was too late and 15 minutes later I was pushing.  Ben was born nice and calm.  He just laid on my chest looking around, taking everything in.  Of course he looked just like his brothers. We seem to be pretty consistent in that department.

I had joked around that since my labor with Robert was only 9.5 hours long and my labor with Alex was only 6.5 hours long that my labor with Ben would probably be 3.5 hours.  I never really believed that that would be true, but Ben was born after only 3 hours in labor.  We are so blessed to have our newest son here.  God has been good to our family.

Moving day isn’t for a few more weeks and Christopher and I will be sure to take and post pictures for your viewing pleasure.  :)

I feel like Robert is our miracle child in so many different ways.  We tried for two years to have a baby before finally getting pregnant with him.  Then I was at a risk for miscarriage and had to take medication throughout my first trimester to help prevent that.  Then he was born with a heart defect and had to have a balloon procedure done at five days old.  At this point last year, I had no idea if my child would live to see his third birthday.  He was in heart failure and we were told that it was important that he have open heart surgery within three months.  My family learned a few years ago that life on this earth is not guaranteed and all I could think was that I only had three more months with my child.  Robert had open heart surgery in January and praise God he is alive and well today.  I am so grateful to have this little boy in my life.  He has changed our lives so much and has brought so much joy.  He is a feisty, rambunctious, sensitive little fellow who is full of energy and personality.  Such a drastic change from just a year ago when Robert was sleeping around 18 hours out of 24 in a day, and when he was awake he only had energy to sit on the couch and watch a movie.  God has been so good to us and to our little boy.  I am so grateful to have had another year with our Robert-Boy, and I hope and pray for many many more.

Happy Birthday, Robert.  I love you so very much.

Last night at around 10:30 I heard Robert kind of crying in his crib.  I knew he had been asleep for a while so I went to check on him.  I don’t know what was wrong but I picked him up, changed his diaper, and then rocked him for a few minutes.  I started to stand up to put him back in the crib and Robert sat up and whispered, “Ready to go back in da crib.”  I said okay and walked him over to the crib.  He was mumbling something that I couldn’t understand until the very end.  ”Worship God.  Dat be exciting!”  I hugged him close and told him I loved him.  He hugged me back and said, “love you too momma.”  He holds my heart in his hands.  I have written before about Robert telling me that God has healed his heart.  Lately he has added something to that.  ”Momma, God heal heart.  Thank you, God.”  Robert is still doing very well after the surgery.  His next cardiologist appointment is at the end of July and we look forward to hearing about Robert’s progress.  Provided everything looks good, we should be able to start weaning Robert off of his medication which will be great.

Alex is growing and learning so much.  We pray at mealtimes and before putting him to bed and he sits quietly until the Amen.  Then he says amen with us.  He says thank you is his own way.  He loves to throw away his diapers and blow on his brother’s belly.  He tickles Robert and the two boys generally play very well together.  He is learning how to feed himself with a fork and he insists on “helping” me when I try to feed him with a spoon.  Alex is a very happy, loving baby.  He loves being held and giving kisses.  He loves being read to, and some of his favorite books are “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?”, “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?”, “Green Eggs and Ham”, and “Curious George and the Rocket”.

With baby number 3 on the way, we are looking forward to making some changes around here!  We need to get Robert in a big boy bed and get  him fully potty trained, and we need to get Robert and Alex sharing a room.  We don’t know when we will be able to purchase a house so I am trying to make plans with what we have right now.  If those plans have to change because we find a house, great!  Tomorrow I will officially be in the 2nd trimester.  This pregnancy is moving fast and Christopher and I look forward to meeting our new little blessing in time for Christmas.