Big Brother

I grew up the oldest sibling, and I like it that way but this picture makes me a little jealous of Beth. She has the best big brother ever! And as Adam's growing up and becoming more interactive, he's getting into the benefits of older siblings, as well. Siblings may fight and fight and fight but they also love each other, play together, entertain each other and support each other. I love that my kids have each other. Some days when the sharing just isn't working or the tattling seems endless, I need to remind myself of these moments where I catch them casually watching TV together all curled up in one ball just wanting to be close to each other.

Days later...I actually witnessed Beth tell Jason, "I'm scared of this part [of the movie], can I sit in your lap?" And I caught the result on film again.

Thanksgiving Premiere

Thanksgiving is many people's favorite holiday. I've heard reasons like I love the food or there are no gifts, it's just about family. And while those reasons are nice, Thanksgiving isn't my favorite holiday. It just seems like another reason to get together and eat. And while I like eating and spending time with family and having my husband for a four-day weekend, I've just never felt anything particularly special about Thanksgiving. Well now that I have kids old enough to learn and create holiday traditions, I have reason to make Thanksgiving meaningful. Thankfully, my sister Casey and her family did that for me. For our Thanksgiving at Aunt Edie and Uncle Kenn's (happy turkey day birthday to you, Kenn!) the Longs put together a First Annual Thanksgiving Day performance. The boys created a cardboard Mayflower and costumes, and with Dad Stacy as narrator, they performed the story of the First Thanksgiving for all the adults. Jason and Beth were so proud to be pilgrims, and even Adam strutted his stuff as an Indian. It was an educational, funny and entertaining success. Beth still wears her pilgrim hat weeks later! And after all is said and done, I must admit that the food and hanging out time with the family was pretty special, too.

(This picture of Caleb, Tori and Beth is after the play. They created their own adventure of kings, pilgrims and indians...I don't think Pilgrims fought with swords but go Beth!)

Put a little love in your heart

Beth had her debut Saturday night. She's been taking ballet and her big performance was fabulous. OK, it was 3 year old fabulous. She did her whole dance with pride and elegance, and the smile on her face when we all started clapping at the end made the nine weeks of driving her to lessons completely worth it! Her dance was to the song "Put a little love in your heart" hence the heart costumes.

She was so well behaved in class and worked so hard that we're going to let her continue and take ballet again next session so I'll be driving and watching them sashay and plie and pique for nine more weeks. Honestly, I love it. I'm very proud of what a great student she is and I can't wait to see her continue!

18 months

Adam is at one of my favorite and least favorite ages...all at the same time! Somehow at this conflicted age of 18 months Adam can endear and infuriate all at once. Take last night...as he dumps a full glass of water onto the kitchen table, he proudly looks up and says, "drink!" What's a mom to do? It's this amazing transition from infant to toddler, and it's unbelievable to watch him as the lights go on and he discovers and interacts more every day. He's talking and learning new words constantly. He understands basic commands, get your shoes, sit down, pick up the toy. I love it!

The problem is he's in that frustrating transition from infant to toddler and it drives me nuts to try and communicate with him while he's babbling and asserting his independence and opinion constantly. He's also very curious and to that end climbs and opens and dumps and finds (he appears with things we didn't even know we owned). And he thinks he can talk so he gets very angry when he babbles a sentence complete with proper tone and inflection only to have us stare at him and pathetically ask, "what?" I realize he's brilliant and we're the ignorant ones so we just plod on uncovering the mystery that is Adam remembering to enjoy him while not pulling our hair out!

(At least he still naps.)

More pics of Eagan...

We've visited more and wanted to show a couple more pictures of baby Eagan. He's had his first bath, good food from mommy, a lot of naps, and plenty of love. He is so cute and perfectly wonderful, and mommy and baby get to go home today!

Jason, Beth and Adam were very excited to meet their cousin but the actual meeting was very hesitant. Turns out they didn't know he'd be that small. Jason says that Adam wasn't that small when he was zero. True, Adam was two pounds heavier but I think their memory of how tiny a newborn really is may be fuzzy. When we got home Beth told us she wanted to hold baby Eagan. We had to remind her that she was scared to stand near him back at the hospital! We'll try again at their house in a few days and see if the nerves have gone away.

Happy Halloween!

We pulled out our fall decorations and old Halloween costumes this week. It was a lot of fun trying on old costumes and remembering past pumpkin celebrations. Jason can amazingly still fit into his m&m costume he wore when he was 9 months old and he wanted to wear last year's Superman costume all week! However, on Halloween night, they each wore what was originally planned: Cars race car driver for Jason, Cinderella (is anyone suprised?) Check out her glass slippers :) and Nemo (Adam's a big fan!) We went to our community's Hullabaloo event where there were bounce houses, games and too much candy! We met up with our cousins and had a lot of fun! For lots more pictures of Hullabaloo and our church's Harvest Festival, click on the shutterfly album's link in the right column.

Eagan Benjamin has arrived!

Casey had her baby! He came into the world at 11:04 am on 11/04 weighing 7 lbs. 7oz. and measuring 20in. long. Mother and baby are doing well. Grandma and Aunt Jocelyn got to be there for the very speedy delivery and were very happy to share in the joy.

He's an adorable and very easygoing, alert baby. The nurses can't get him to cry, and although we know they're supposed to do that for health reasons, we're thinking it may be a good thing that he's so mellow! He's nursing well and doing all the other things babies are supposed to (he went pee pee before they could even get his first diaper on him!)

Eagan is blessed with four proud big brothers who all want to know, did I look like that? And although Caleb seems a little hesistant (maybe he's worried about losing his status as the baby or maybe it's just the shock of seeing someone so small that looks like him) with Daddy's help he did hold him and give him a good look over.

It's going to be fun to see who little Eagan becomes as he grows. He has a very special family and is going to be a very special boy! We can't wait!