The Smile!!!

The first real one I got on camera! I worked for about 3 days to get one this good! It's really so much cuter in person. He is smiling all of the time now, it's so sweet I can barely stand it, makes me smile every time he does it. He is cooing and doing some little babbles now, and of course I have to talk back so we have some pretty goofy conversations during the day.

Dandelion 2.0, Buddah, Audrey II......

And the nicknames go on, we can't help it, we are nickname people, this picture works for pretty much all of them, he's so cute. I have no idea how big he is right now, it's been a couple of weeks since he was weighed at the urologist, which I forgot to update about. He went in on August 28th for a consult, I really hoped we were making a bigger deal of it than it is, unfortunately I was wrong and he does have to have surgery. He was diagnosed with a subcoronal hypospadias along with chordee and an inadequate foreskin. In laymans terms, his urethra comes out on the side of his little pee pee instead of in the middle on top (hypospadias), his pee pee is bent downward a little bit (chordee), and the foreskin that he does have is incomplete. He is scheduled for surgery at 6:30 a.m. on his 6 month birthday. Afterward he should look and function normally.
You are looking at Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors. If this child could talk he would ask for food all day long. “Feed me, Seymour!” I swear I am going to start searching for an evil dentist to knock off soon. He is a little pig, he eats all the stinking time. As of 2 weeks ago at the Urologist he has gained 3 pounds! 6 weeks old and 10 pounds thank you very much. The child barely spits up and if he ever does its some miniscule little dribble and he doesn’t do anything all day but sleep and poop so apparently everything he takes in is for making him fat. He is quite the little chunk now, he’s got huge cheeks and a big belly and some chubby little thighs. Ben is always kissing his face, telling him how adorable he is.

'Yes, I have a natural mohawk, my Mom does not use any gel or product on my hair, no matter what, it will not lay down, makes me really cute, I get all the ladies!'

Deacon wanted lunch, so I sat Rowan down in the corner of the La-Z-Boy wide awake and lookin around and went to make Deak a sandwich. MAYBE 5 minutes later I came back to find this. Awww.

And 10 minutes after that, he looked like this.

Random Rowan

This is to indulge the Grandparents in Minnesota who I am sure are aching for new pics of this baby. I will send a new batch through email soon, I have just been a bit preoccupied with school and this little muffin, he REALLY likes to eat.

An awake moment, wearing an outfit from Auntie Jenna and shoes from Auntie Kathy. The shoes are SO cute, they say 'miniman' around the bottom and have a pitcure of a puppy on the side.

He still sleeps a whole lot, we really only get a couple hours total with an awake baby.

More sleeping, he's wearing my favorite socks, we have a couple of pair of them, they came from Auntie Kerra. :)

That hand sure must taste good, he puts it in his mouth a lot, I catch him sucking on the side of it a lot, little punk! He's trying to thwart the plan, NO THUMB SUCKING!!! Look at those eyes, they are starting to get lighter, pretty sure they are gona go blue like Daddy. Are we surprised? Sorry Mom, I know you were rooting for the brown, looks like we only got one brown eyed boy!

I just could not stand how cute this looked, just the little head and his foot poking out of the blanket. No, I have not convinced Rowan that sleeping in the bassinett is a good idea yet, he has fully embraced the idea of sleeping with Mom for the rest of his life!!

Benny and His Boys

It's been interesting to see how Ben has reacted to having another child, he was a lot more open to the idea of a baby than I was when we first found out Rowan was on his way and he helped me to come around and be OK with it too.

Ben fell in love with Rowan pretty much instantly, he's very proud of his fat baby. I find him just looking at the baby a lot.

Deacon always wants to be in Ben's lap whenever he sits down, even if his hands are full with 'Brother'. This is a very common sight when Ben takes the baby after he gets home. I sometimes wonder how the poor guy feels when he walks through the back door after a day at work, he's got dogs waggin and waiting for attention, Shryn even whines at him to pet her, then Deacon who always comes barreling down the hall as soon as he hears the door, I am always ready for some adult conversation or just a few minutes without a baby demanding all my attention, and we all converge on him at once! He sure does know he's loved though! ;)

Once again, Deacon must be in Daddy's lap, especially if 'Brother' is, they were watching something together but I can't remember what. I appreciate that no matter what I ask him to do for the baby or Deacon, Ben is willing to do it, he changes diapers, feeds, burps, bathes, puts Deak down for naps and bed, makes lunch and dinner, he's pretty good in that regard.

I gave Benny the baby to burp him after he ate (no, he does not have a burp cloth under him, this baby does not spit up at all, it's not normal) and Rowan passed out on his shoulder. There is nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby.

Laundry Helper

So I carried Rowan into the laundry room with me when I went to change the laundry one day and then realized I was gona have to carry him back along with the clean laundry from the dryer, what I lacked was a good way to do it, so he got to ride in the laundry basket with the clean clothes.
He didn't seem to mind it, but then again, he really doesn't seem to mind anything except being hungry. We hit the baby jackpot! (not that I'm biased or anything)

He was in a bit of an odd position so he didn't stay in there for long, hopefully this is the last time he has to lie on the bathroom rug. At least it was clean!

Marx and Maddox's Visit

I was going through pictures from the past couple of months and realized I didn't post anything from when Marx and Maddox were here to visit besides Marx's baptizm.

Ben's cousins Laurel and Charlie live really close to my parents and the boys love to play with their little girls so we took them over for an afternoon. They loved the little kiddie pool and stayed in it for a good hour or so.

That is Marlee on the far left, she is 21 months and the little girl in the pool with the boys is Haley (pronounced Hal-lee) they are both so much fun. Haley loves Marx and asks me about him every time I see her, she was so happy to have them there, she chased Marx around trying to kiss him and Marx told her he will get in trouble if he kisses any girls. :)

They had a pretty good time splashing and getting as much water out of the pool as they possibly could, Mar and Deacon were in and out of the pool over and over again.

Filling up the pool again after they splashed half the water out of it. Deacon loves the hose, can you tell?

Marx and Hal jumped on the trampoline for a while after drying off, then it was back in the pool again.

Maddox wanted to have his picture taken, what a handsome boy! Love those blue eyes!

The boys (Marx, Maddox and Will) went yardsaling with Nana and found a couple of rockets. Nana already had several from her years and years of teaching rocketry and ELP. They were supposed to launch on Saturday night but it got really windy by the time it was cooling off enough to launch and we had to postpone it. We ended up launching the next morning before church at about 7 a.m. Talk about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. ;) The boys took turns launching, this was Marx's first attempt.

Retrieving the rocket, they went pretty far and it was fun to watch the boys chase them as they came back down. They wanted me to help in retrieval but since this was the day before Rowan was born I declined the offer.

Maddox's launch, he took off to retrieve it right after this.

All three boys watching Papa's launch, he went last.

Papa's launch. Papa used a "c" engine which is a pretty big engine for these little rockets and we ended up losing this rocket completely. We found the nosecone and the parachute but no rocket body. Woops. Maybe next time the Big Dog will be content with a smaller engine.

Maddox loved to hold Rowan, this was in the hospital but he held him as much as he could after we brought him home. We found Maddox standing next to the laundry basket that served as a baby bed just gazing at the baby several times. He was very proud of his little brother. When Kris came to pick up the boys Maddox asked him if he wanted to pet his baby brother.

Marx thought Rowan was pretty cool too. That makes 4 little brothers and One little sister for Marx, he is an awesome big brother. No more siblings for him though, both Julie and I are done!

The last day the boys were here Papa had a great idea to take them all outside and get them wet with the water hose, Papa got quite wet himself!

Papa and Deacon made sure that Will was nice and cool.

They did a pretty thorough job of getting everybody and everything soaked.

Four little boys and a water hose, who needs toys?

I just love the look on Will's face, the water looks pretty cool too. Nana and I watched from the window, by the time they were done there were 5 plumbers cracks out there.

We had so much fun with Marx and Maddox, they spent a lot of time with Will and Nana and Papa while I was in the hospital. I have such great kids, I feel lucky to have them.

Baby Rowan Sleeps.....

He sleeps in the morning....

He sleeps in the afternoon.....

And in the evening, until I try to put big brother to bed, then it's time to be REALLY hungry and want to eat RIGHT NOW!

He sleeps on his back...

And he sleeps on his belly (but only if Mom is awake to make sure he doesn't suffocate)

He sleeps without a blanket....

And he sleeps in a blanket all snuggled up! So, how come I am so freaking tired and sleep deprived? Welcome to life with a newborn. This morning he was up at 2 a.m. wide awake. Ben had mercy on me and hung out with Deacon when he got up so that Rowan and I could catch up on some sleep.