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..)