I Love These Kids!

We just returned from Utah Monday evening. I've been gone every day since. Today, I vowed that I would stay home, clean my house, and not do any big projects in the kitchen. Well, Jackson really wanted to make muffins. So much so that this is what I found when I walked into the kitchen:

Cooling racks out of the big heavy drawer and on the counter:

Muffin pans out of the big heavy drawer + baking powder, baking soda, vanilla extract and toothpicks out of the baking cabinet + one toddler on the counter courtesy of the ice chest that is still in the kitchen from our trip = one happy Jackson Christopher Exum:


I couldn't believe he got all of that out. We must bake a lot!

Irresistible!

Allison's First Month

Our sweet Allison is about to be two months old and I am just now posting about her first month. I am TERRIBLE!!! I am hoping that one of these days I will get it together. I know I'll never get it ALL together. Right now, I am just hoping to get SOME of it together. Why do I feel so inadequate? Why do I feel so defeated. I look around and see so many other people accomplishing so much more and wonder, "HOW?!" How do they do it. I know that no one is perfect and that everyone has issues. I just can't seem to get enough done...and I'm not even lazy! I never sit around. I am always doing something. Lord, help me! Where am I going wrong?!

I am having a hard time believing that my daughter is already 7 weeks old. Where does the time go?! As crazy as this sounds, I am grieving her newbornness gone by. I know she's still a newborn, but I'm talking about those skinny legs without any fat rolls, her limp, sleepy body that couldn't be aroused, her puffy face from labor and delivery, the absence of creases at her wrists and ankles, her fingernails and toenails that were perfectly manicured from the womb, her fisted hands, etc. Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying each day with her and I love every new change. I love the rolls around her thighs. When I change her diaper, I am amazed at all of the folds and I love each one of them. I love her little wrists that get red from the creases that are beginning to form from the baby fat she's gaining. I love the sound of her precious voice. She smiles and talks so much. During the day, Jackson and I have so much fun deciphering her aahs and oohs. He loves asking me what she's saying and I have fun trying to think of things. I love watching her nurse and noticing the different things she does - expressions she makes, position of her hands, grabbing me or my shirt, nestling her sweet face next to my skin when she's full, satisfied and sleepy...

So her first month went by like a flash and now we are nearing the end of her second, which I can't wait to blog about. There are so many memories that I would love to forever engrave in my mind. I want to preserve each one of them because I love them so much. My children bring me so much joy and they amaze me each day. I might not succeed in recording enough of their milestones, but I will succeed in spending lots of time with them. Hopefully, our time together will not return void when they are adults.

Now, back to Allison's first month:

• Her first two weeks were easy. I say easy because I could not believe how agreeable she was. She slept well from her first day of life and rarely cried. It wasn't until she turned two weeks that she got very fussy...or colicky as most people say. From two to four weeks, we had several nights with very little sleep because she cried so much. It broke my heart to watch her cry in pain. At times, I cried with her because I felt so bad for her and because I was so tired. Her fussiest hours were in the evenings and into the night, which is when Jason is home. I felt so bad for him because he was only around her when she was fussy. I took dairy out of my diet, thinking it might be causing the pain in her tummy because I couldn't eat dairy when I was nursing Jackson. I thought it was helping, but then she started having fussy nights again. The day she turned one month, I gave her probiotics. I felt she needed them since I had been given antibiotics during labor for GBS. I would have given them to her sooner, but since she'd been fine the first two weeks, I thought she didn't need them. Wrong! I gave them to her daily for a week and she was so much better. Gratefully, I haven't noticed her having a painful tummy since then.

• Few things make Allison cry. One is a dirty daiper. Allison hates having dirty diapers. In fact, she will wake from her sleep to have her diaper changed. Sleepiness is another. Whenever she is tired and ready to go to sleep, she gets fussy...IF we aren't paying attention to her cues by preparing her or her environment for sleep. She likes to be up on our left shoulder or nestled at our chest as she falls asleep. We then lie her on her tummy to slumber peacefully. Sometimes, she'll move her head from side to side 20 times until she gets comfortable. She will also go to sleep on her own if we lie her in her bed; however, we prefer to hold her as much as possible. We remember how quickly these days passed with Jackson.
  

• I love sleeping with my baby girl. She nestles her face in my neck or on my chest and falls into the deepest sleep. I prop pillows under both of my arms and cuddle her for hours. I know these times will pass too quickly so I'm treasuring each one of them.
  

• Alli can scoot herself all around her bed. I will lie her down in one spot and find her completely turned around when she wakes.

• Baby girl gets hiccups EVERY day. I feel terrible because nothing makes them go away...not even nursing.

• She burps easily. I rarely have to "burp" Allison. She does it on her own and has since her first time.
  

• At one week and one day old, Allison smiled at me! My parents had just left and Jason and Jackson were mowing the lawn. Allison and I were in my bed. When she woke up, I was talking to her and she smiled. I thought it might have been coincidence, but she kept doing it. After her nap, I talked to her again and she smiled IN RESPONSE. Her smile is so precious. I think she looks so much like her daddy when she smiles, especially when she smiles more to one side and the eye on that side partially closes. I also think I see dimples!

• When Allison was born, she came out hugging herself. Now that she's here, I can see why. She loves to fold her arms in front of her and clasp her hands. Whenever we hold her up on our shoulder, she folds one or both arms and rests her chin on them.

• We have lots of nicknames for Allison. I love names that easily make nicknames! Some of these nicknames came from me, but many of them came from Jackson. They are: Alli, Allibelle, Allibear, Allibearies, Bearies, Al, Belle, Belle-ies, Sister, Sis, SisterBear, Sissy, Sissybear, and maybe more that I'm forgetting!

• I'm very excited that she knows my voice. It's amazing how quickly a newborn responds to its mommy's voice. She knows when I'm in the room and my voice will soothe her.

• She sucked her thumb for the first time while outside the womb when Jason and Gail were weighing her on her birth day. She sucked it a few times afterwards, but has not shown herself to have an intense need to suck like her brother did. She will suck on her fists, but not very often.

• At four weeks old, Allison started talking. I love it when they start talking! She focuses on my face and tried to immitate the sounds I make. It is so cute watching her mouth form different shapes. I can tell that she is trying to hard to produce sounds. It's wonderul! By five weeks, she was talking during each awake period.

• This last one isn't an Allison milestone but a Mommy one. By four weeks, I felt back to normal. I have felt great since she was born, minus misaligning my back, but it wasn't until her 4th week that I realized how much strength you lack right after birth because I felt so much stronger.
  

And now for the fun part:

10 days old:

Jackson loves it whenever she's awake. He always wants to hold her:

Meredith drove us to Allison's 2 week check-up:

At the midwifery clinic with Gail (Alli was 12 days old):

Superdad:

Jeff and Lisa are the most generous people I have ever met. Seriously! Jeff has done so much for us as we moved into our home and Lisa has graciously let him. He is a jack of all trades - plumber, electrician, landscape architect, finance man, etc. You name it, he's probably done it. He works with Jason and has been an enormous blessing to him at work. Here they are with Allison at 2 weeks old:



16 days old and trying to capture her smile (Notice the one eye that partially closes? Jason's does that too!):


3 weeks old:



First day of church (3 weeks and 1 day):


They love snuggling together.

We're getting braver with letting him hold her:

4 weeks old and her first Farmer's Market:




1 month old!






These last photos were taken the day after she turned one month. I should technically post them with her 2nd month post, but I think it's close enough!

She usually wears spit-up. It happens often, but she obviously doesn't seem to mind:





Wow! That's one more check mark I get to make. Done!

Alli's First Song

When Jackson was born, I used the tunes of various nursery rhymes and made up new words that spoke about Jackson. Now that Allison is here, I have to do the same for her. I love singing to my kids...and I am NOT gifted vocally nor lyrically. It's just fun to change the words and sing about my child.

The first song we wrote for Jackson was to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" so I used the same tune for Allison's first song.

Allison, Allison, Allison Michele
God's gift to us our sweet Allibelle
Big blue eyes, a sweet soft smell
We'll cuddle and we'll kiss our sweet Allibelle
Allison, Allison, Allison Michele
God's gift to us our sweet Allibelle

Our sweet Allibelle (1 month old):

Sisters! Cousins!

I have two of the most incredible sisters you could ever dream of...and one more we'll be adding to the trio on 24 October. (She is a dream come true and I can't wait to tell you about her!) Both of them came and stayed with me after Allison was born.

Meredith and Madalyn (who turned 4 months while she was here) came the day after my parents left, on Monday. Allison was just one week old. We were so excited to get our girls together. I hadn't seen Madalyn since she was 7 weeks old, and I was craving time with my baby sister. It's not often that we get to spend one-on-one time together. Right now, Meredith and her hubby Ryan are in Arkansas, so when we're both in Houston, our time is always split among a lot of people. Having her all to myself was a huge treat.

The first two days they were here, we spent time adjusting to having all of the kids together and Meredith, bless her soul, began the project of organizing Allison's closet. (She brought me tons of clothes, I had boxes of clothes from a friend, and I had clothes that were mine to keep.) As she was going through Alli's closet, she had a lot of advice to offer on girly things. I was so amused by it because the roles are usually reversed. Don't get me wrong, she is always putting me on the right track, but I am the one who experiences things before her...most assuredly because I am older. It was a wonderful place to be in! I loved getting her advice on being a mommy to a little girl (and I still can't believe I have a daughter). She is such a great mommy, she's logical, down-to-earth, not excessive, and very much in love with pleasing the Lord. She's basically AWESOME!

We shared a lot of breastfeeding time together. Jason even laughingly said, "Man, I forgot how much nursing goes on when they're little!" It was so nice having someone to talk to while we nursed our girls. We talked about the joys of nursing, the challenges of nursing, and Madalyn's and Allison's nursing nuiances.

Jackson adores Madalyn. And she seemed to adore him too...whenever he wasn't screaming or frustrating her with a toy:) Poor Madalyn had a lot of interuptions while she was here. She's used to having a calm and quiet home. Jackson introduced her to the energy of a toddler. Then, when Melissa and her boys got to our house on Thursday, the noise quadrupled. We believe that Madalyn found her squealing/screaming voice while she was at my house. We know that it was only a matter of time before she found it, but her cousins influence brought it about a little sooner. I can say with confidence that Meredith is very grateful!

Here is our sweet Mad Suzy...as her Mama and Daddy like to call her:

Oh, and it is pretty freaky how much she looks like her daddy; however, certain expressions and her smile are Meredith without question. She is also quite the drama queen. I had no idea it could start so early!

On Thursday, Allison had her two-week check-up. Meredith and I packed all three kids in the back of our Pilot. I quickly took a photo of them (trying to hurry before the crying began) before we made the drive to Norman to see the midwives. I love Madalyn in this picture because her head support is dark brown like her hair, and at first glance, it look like she's got big hair!

Allison (1 week) and Madalyn (nearly 4 months):

Melissa arrived Thursday afternoon with her three boys: Dawson (7), Colin (2.5) and Landon (17 months). Wow! Was our house one crazy place! I might have been crazy to have that many kids in my house with a 1 week-old, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I was so happy to see them and my darling Jackson was in heaven! He loves his cousins and he loves playing with kids. This was a huge treat for him.

We tried to get photos, but it wasn't easy. Here are a few of the boys playing chase. They ran circles through the house - it was great!

Landon is in the front, followed by Jackson and Colin:

Jackson and Colin are 5 weeks apart. Isn't that fun!

Dawson and Jackson love each other so much. They play very well together and want to be together all the time. They are a lot alike, so they do butt heads at times. Here they are probaby trying to convince the other of how they should play:

And one shot of Jackson, Allison and Dawson:

I cannot say how wonderful it was having both of my sisters in my home. We never get to spend this kind of time together and it was great. Of course, a lot of our time was spent tending to children, but at least we were together. Jason took Thursday afternoon and Friday off, so he was home to help. And he was amazing.

Melissa is a lot like our mom; or, should I say, just like our mom. She is amazing at being a mom. She's organized and scheduled (that actually comes from our dad), she gets things done in warp speed, and she never seems to be stressed out. I loved being around her while she was here. She made me feel so relaxed. I wish I could be around her more often.

Melissa holding Allison:

One night, she was bathing the three youngest boys. I remember watching her with such pride. Listening to her interact with the boys as she did the "job" of bathing was so beautiful. She was precious with them and so loving. My heart swelled with admiration and I was so thankful for such an incredible big sister.

Saturday was Meredith's 29th birthday. Ryan is such a selfless person. Rather than asking her to be home for her birthday, he told her to go ahead and stay and celebrate with us. (Right now, he's working 7 days a week, so he wouldn't have been home to be with her; however, he could have seen her that night. He's so incredible. I wish you could know him.) Since Meredith is living in a small town far from family and carrying the load at home with Ryan's current work schedule, she never gets a break to do anything for herself. So, she and Melissa went for pedicures and then I went with her to get a haircut. She needed some pampering and her new haircut looks great!

Mer isn't a traditional birthday cake person, so Melissa baked her a caramel pecan cheesecake. It was absolutely delicious.

Mom, this photo is for you! (My mom always does a head tilt or puts her hands near her face in photos. We always give her a hard time for it!)

And now for a regular shot of the birthday girl:

I'm a loser. I forgot about candles and this was all that I had. I knew in advance that she was going to be here on her birthday and I was so excited about it. You would think I would have made sure that I had candles! We didn't get to her cake until 10:30 at night!!! I pictured the day being a lot more "perfect" for her.

Make a wish!

Don't forget that I said, "10:30 at night" when you see this picture. I look dreadful!

Melissa and her wrecking crew left Sunday. Meredith and Madalyn left on Monday. I miss them so much already and can't wait to see them in October when we celebrate Ronald and Christy's marriage. Mel and Mer, I love you and am so grateful for everything you did while you were here. Thank you for making the drive to come and see us. We'll have to do it again...and I can't wait!

Here are the last photos that we took before Meredith and Madalyn left. Allison was asleep and did not want to wake up.

We laugh at this next photo because of Alli's expression and both of their hands are in the air:

Already pulling hair...they start early!