And then there were four…

The day Asher was born, my mom arrived for a nice long visit to help us adjust to the presence of her newest grandson. We were so excited for Nena to get here, and so, so thankful for all of her wonderful help.

My recovery felt really slow to me this time around, but I’m not entirely sure why (maybe the ever-present need to care for a toddler?). I think overall it has actually been much faster, we just had a few bumps right at the beginning. On this day..

Featuring Asher trying out the new wrap!

…the day of our first venture out with all of us (Asher was 5 days old.. and at one point I was totally carrying Aed while carrying Asher in that wrap), I came down with a really high fever. It was pretty miserable. I got shrugged off by a couple of doctors and taken seriously by one midwife for whom I will always be grateful. She managed to talk one of said doctors into prescribing me an antibiotic, as she was pretty certain I had a uterine infection. A few days in and I was good as new!

I was very thankful for that, because I had a birthday cake to make :) We had decided to just do a little partay for Ian on his birthday, and save the cake and one of his gifts for after my mom got here so we’d have help eating the cake. Let me introduce you to The Cookie Monster Cake, Version 28.

Cookie Monster is venturing out and eating chocolate bars now!
(Which might be because the baker forgot the cookies..)

We had thoroughly enjoyed eating the deliciousness over the next few days, but it turns out my gifts for Ian amounted to a bunch of FAIL. I thought I was being all sneaky and getting him practical things that he needed, but things that would still be fun and exciting because he wasn’t expecting to get them.

Enter: the underwear. I got Ian underwear for his birthday.. not fun, you say? Well this was nicer underwear than what he has. No holes, working elastic, soft material, I’m sure you know the kind.

Too small! Too small! Curse these UK sizes. And thus, I failed. He wears them anyway, though. What a guy!

Ok, on to fail #2.

Enter: the pillow. Ian has had the same pillow pretty much since we got married. It was super flat and kind of a weird color, so we decided it was probably time to replace it. I searched high and low for a nice, affordable pillow that met all of his specifications (since he has allergies to the high heavens) and found what I thought was perfect. And the pack even came with TWO. Two pillows! Even more exciting!

The morning after his first night with the pillow, I was excited to find out how he had liked it. The verdict: too fluffy. TOO FLUFFY! He said he felt like he was drowning in pillow.

So I have two nice, fluffy new pillows and the assignment to flatten them as soon as possible. :) FAIL.

The one thing at which I didn’t fail (grammar points right there!) was my choice of book for his 28^th. I chose a book he’s wanted to read for a few years, and that, finally, was a success. The downside is he’s too busy to read it. So I also have a new book to read! :)

Aside from Ian’s birthday we did all kinds of fun things while my family was here..

We looked at a cute, sleeping baby..

We got the cute, sleeping baby baptized..

We worked on making sure the cute baby stayed a sleeping baby..

Aed has his first taste of popsicle after an unfortunate run-in with a peanut butter jar..

Fat lips always feel better after a popsicle!

And he decided it was not so nice after Daddy mentioned he could bite it. He took a huge bite a couple of times (it was like he couldn’t stop himself!) until he was inwardly frozen and very done with that popsicle.

We celebrated the 4^th of July with patriotic fruit, burgers, fries, and a peanut butter pie that stopped our hearts for an instant after the first bite with it’s phlegm-inducing richness. (Am I the only one that gets phlegm when I eat rich things? Maybe.)..

          

   

A certain hungry someone couldn't keep his hands off the burgers :)

We took car rides..

He wasn't as worried as he looks..

And made a failed attempt at miniature golf.

It mostly involved chasing a crazy toddler and trying to keep him from not only running through other people's games, but also stealing their golf balls. After much screaming and flailing the toddler was removed from the premises by his father while the rest of us goofed off for 14 more holes.

Aed's feet hit the ground.. Let the chaos begin!

Chase and Return #37

Chase and Return #126

Showing Mitchell his goal..

Mitch thought doing 'the shuffle' right in front of the hole would help mom focus..
Meanwhile, the clouds piled up and brought us a rain storm. We entertained ourselves
in a shelter at the beach while Aed and Ian got hypothermia playing in the rain.

Then came my birthday. My first birthday in three years that I got to celebrate with (some of) my family!

There is always lots of WoW playing when Ian and Mitchell are together..

This cake was so good.. So, so good.. I wanted to eat it over and over again..

This is what happens when your camera takes 5 minutes to snap a picture. The candles have been blown out,
the subject is laughing, and the subject's brother has gotten bored and decided to contribute to the moment..

Two days later my family was gone..

And my oldest kiddo was sick..

It was a sad time. But we all recovered and couldn’t believe after all that fun, that Asher was already four weeks old!

We are so thankful to have had Mom’s, Dad’s, and Mitch’s help and company during that first month. We needed some practice before we were ready to take our juggling act on the road!

So now we’re on our own. Just the four of us. Things have been up and down, crazy and perfect during the last 2+ weeks. We’re figuring things out inch by inch. And just WAIT til you see what we’ve been up to! (Are you so excited?? You should be because it mostly involves ridiculously cute things like this..)

6 Years

12 years ago on a warm, Wednesday night, I shook your hand and looked into your blue eyes for the first time. That same summer you met Jesus and gave him your life.

The guys' senior prom, 2002

11 years ago we secretly hoped the other one felt the same. You worried I was out of your league, I worried you would think I was too immature.

Chillin' on the couch, 2004

10 years ago you took me to Taco Bell and, with sweaty palms, asked me to be your girlfriend. As I toyed with that straw wrapper, it was all I could do to not shout, “FINALLY!”

Mexican Restaurant (YUM!), 2007

9 years ago I almost called it quits in the Marsh parking lot. That was a bad night. I was overwhelmed. Fortunately, you were irresistible.

Geneva, Switzerland, 2008

7 years ago you asked if I’d go for a walk with you. Under the bell tower and in the rain, you knelt and asked me to be your wife. I was so surprised I asked if you were joking. Turned out, you weren’t.

Panama City Beach, 2009

6 years ago today, on another July Saturday, we donned our black and our white and committed ourselves to one another before God and hundreds of loved ones. You sweated profusely, I tried not to laugh.

Durham Cathedral, 2010

5 years and 364 days ago, I realized that I had no idea how funny you really were. And that was awesome. I also realized that we had forgotten to do the twisty arm drinking thing at our reception. That was less awesome but you didn’t care and I got over it.

Since then you have given me day after day of faithful patience, love, and grace. I wash your underwear and you do the dishes. I remind you to drink your tea before it gets cold and you push me up hills when I’m pregnant. I laugh when I realize that you still know me better than I know myself. You tell me I’m beautiful and I say I think you’re crazy. My heart sings a song I never knew before when I watch you love our boys. I have never met another soul I’d rather walk through life with.

Yesterday, while Ian was trying to focus.

Good days and bad days, it’s your socks that I want to find bunched up on the floor.

Happy Anniversary to us, Ian. Soli Deo gloria.

Once upon a time, when I was still pregnant..

We did something fun!

But first, I need to show you something. Aed got this little rash on his torso, and instead of getting him checked by the doctor like normal people, we decided it would be easier to take a picture of it and send it to my dad and let him decide if we should take Aed to the doctor. I was looking through my pictures and came across that little set of images and saw this cute one of Aed trying to grab the camera. And then I noticed the boots. THE BOOTS!

Be still my beating heart.

How he loves his boots.

How I love him in only a diaper and boots.

Now on to something fun. The Edinburgh Zoo!

Remember how our Tesco points got us a little vacay out West? (I love pretending like this is a huge country) Well our Tesco points also got us a free day at the zoo! I’m telling you, our lives would be so boring without our Tesco points! They are not even paying me to say this!

I was so excited to go to the zoo because I love zoos dearly, but we were really not sure when the best time to go was since I was getting more pregnant by the second.

So, naturally, we decided to go when I was a puffy, rotund, beautiful 39 weeks pregnant. To a zoo that is entirely built upon the steepest hill in all the land. All of it. The whole thing is uphill until you decide to leave, but by then you need someone to just roll you down because seriously.

Anyway.

We got to go with some friends from the philosophy department who also have an adorable wee lad with curly blond(er than Aed’s) locks. The downside is they are both crazy toddlers, so when I saw their little curly heads together as they were looking at some animals, I didn’t move fast enough for the camera and the moment was forever recorded only in my brain! Sad.

So we wandered (and some of us had to push others of us up the never-ending hill) and enjoyed animals like this one:

Which kicks off our theme for the day: Most of the animals hate us and hide when we come to see them! Maybe we make too much eye contact? I don’t know.

So then there was a monkey show. I’m sure it was fabulous, but it was hard to tell because I was a little distracted..

A certain relative of monkeys was adamant that he get to play with (read: trampled by) the big kids on the big kid playground. At this point, he hated the zoo and had still never seen a monkey in real life because there were obviously more important things to worry over.

But then we found other monkeys.

And he thought the zoo might be ok after all. And then I started to question the goodness of the zoo when a couple of monkeys got frisky right in front of my precious babe’s virgin eyes! And he watched them.. yes he did. I pretended it was no big deal (yes I had to pretend, because I do not have the level of maturity (or desensitizedness?) it takes to think that’s no big deal) and considered how I am not looking forward to those conversations in the coming years..

We also saw pinguinos! Which are so very much my favorite! Though I have to say, it was very evident that they are birds because their poop was everywhere, which was kind of gross. But then they made up for it when they all marched around the zoo and were super cute during their special afternoon penguin march.

We ate a delightful lunch and then someone started getting sleepy. We came prepared, but alas, there was no sleeping to be had in the buggy OR in the car on the way home. He’s made of steel, this child. He will make sure he doesn’t sleep at any cost! He is determined.. And also so cute..

I LOVE to see him snuggle his ‘boo bankie’. Oh it melts my ever-lovin’ heart.

Then we saw these ginormous things.. sea lions? Maybe?

And these red river hogs..

And this is where I said, ‘Aed, can you make a pig face?’

And he said, ‘Sure, mama!’

And thus concludes our trip to the zoo.. But I do feel I should say, the Edinburgh Zoo has many large and interesting animals that we either 1) could not see because they hate us and were hiding, or 2) could not see because Ian couldn’t heave my girth any further up the never-ending hill. Why did they have to put the cool ones all the way at the top? And how did we not know that there was a tram we could have taken to the top and then walked down at a leisurely pace? Maybe next time..

Just an aside, pygmie hippos.. not that small. Also not that cute, and very smelly.

Brotherly love coming up next!

We are not dead..

In fact we are doing quite well!

I have many things to share from the last month and am going to work on that during the next week.. Turns out free time is not as easy to find with a newborn and a toddler! :)

Until then, my current fave of the noob..