Fathers Day II

Father's Day has come again, this time with one more kid and even less time it seems. Marisa's vacation day post made things seems much more dire then they are. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely some growing pains going on in our family. Two kids gives you the illusion of control; on the worst day, you take one, your spouse takes one and you have it handled. On your worst day now, that doesn't work anymore; they truly do have you outnumbered. I don't mean that in a "lock the door and hide the handguns" sort of way, but sometimes there is more need than you have capability to field, even when you are both doing it. This can add a ton of emotion to the mix from either one, or both parents- sympathy, frustration, sadness, anger, laughter,take your pick. Now... quiz for the couples out there....odds that both you and your sigificant other will both land on the same mood at the same time in the middle of the chaos? That's right, slim to none! Like I added at the bottom of Marisa's post, it's a rythym thing...we'll get it.

That being said, from the other side of the coin, I have a lot more to be thankful for this Father's Day. Having the kids be this close together in age is really cool in some respects. It doesn't allow you to "check out" as a parent when the other one has it covered. You're in the game all the time. We both sneak off every now and then to internet surf, check email, read,mow the lawn etc. but pretty much it's a two person shift all of the time. To me, this is the coolest part of it all. Being human (read lazy), I know myself well enough to know that I will take as much rope as I am given, and generally will do stupid things with it. The kids all being little forces me to "be" there. I am not missing a lot of the small stuff that I think some fathers may miss or be able to gloss over. Sick kids, dirty diapers, midnight feedings, small, cool, little stuff that happens in the blink of an eye that you never get back. I have no choice (not that I want one) but to be in the middle of it.

This, to me, is what fatherhood is all about...being there. I get the kids up and dressed in the mornings, I put them in the car for school, I fix them dinner, I bandage the knees, I change the diapers, I live their lives with them...they aren't just a part of mine. What I am being exposed to is what, in past generations, was the stuff that only the moms got. The good, the bad and the ugly, I am there for all of it. I hope it is making me a better father, I know it is making me a better man.

Never Confuse a Vacation with a Family Trip

This is wise advice someone gave me once. Or did I read it in a magazine? In any case we discovered several weeks ago how true it is. Our family loves to take road trips- day trips, weekend trips, etc... Load 'em up in the car and get out of town. No meltdown so large that a few snacks, loud music, and Scooby Doo on DVD can't cure. In that frame of mind we embarked on our first "road trip" with all three children. We drove out to Redfish Lake (the REAL one this time, for those of you that remember our doomed venture last summer!). The three hour drive there went well. But once we got there we discovered how challenging it is going to be to take all three of the kids ANYWHERE and keep them safe, happy, and entertained at the same time. The view, as you can see, is gorgeous. Those are the Sawtooth Mountains in the distance. The lake was surprisingly warm. But we were unable to enjoy it very much. It is the first time we felt truly outnumbered by our children. "We're not in Kansas anymore," I thought. It's a whole new ballgame now.

I wanted to swim with the boys, but one of us needed to stay with Faith. Tanner was covered with dirt and mud and needed to be rinsed off, but Jake wanted to play baseball. Brian wanted some peace and quiet out in the water, but everyone needed help.

We tried to eat a picnic lunch but had nowhere to put Tanner so he dragged his pbj through the dirt and we chased him away from the water's edge. Faith fussed and needed to be held, so I ate with one hand while patting her butt with the other. Jake was disappointed and whiny that we couldn't figure out how to get a game of baseball in.

Needless to say our stay was short. We were happy to get back into the car, turn the tunes back on, get some ice cream cones, and head for home. We don't regret our trip: these are the memories we choose to make. We would miss out on so much if we just stayed home because it is easier. At least the drive was relaxing (and gorgeous) and we got to sing at the top of our lungs everything from John Denver through Axl Rose. We are heading out for a camping trip this weekend. I'm sure lots of memories (good, bad, and ugly!) will be made there. Wish us luck!

We are both assuming that all of these trips, outings and things are imminently "do-able". After all, families much larger than ours have done things far more formidible than this . We know there's a light in the distance. We both assume that it's just an experience thing; there's a rythym there that we just haven't hit yet. At this point it just feels like a needle in a haystack; we need to find it, only the haystack is the size of Texas, it's dark and raining, and all of the kids are "helping".....

In Which Tanner Discovers Cinnamon Rolls and Learns That There Truly is "No Place Like Home"

We knew it was too quiet. Three kids, four and under- you don't get a lot of quiet Sunday mornings. We should have known better, but we were too thankful that for once we had nothing but the Sunday paper and morning coffee to deal with. Jake was playing by himself on the play structure, Faith was asleep upstairs. But where was Tanner? "Aw done! Aw done!" we suddenly hear. "All done?" we asked ourselves. What was our youngest son "aw done" with? Turns out he was all done with the entire pan of cinnamon rolls that we had left to cool on the counter. Considering Milo was right at his feet, we are sure that the dog inhaled a bunch, too, but Tanner definitely had his fill. It was plain old toast for the rest of the family that morning.

Mom bought these fancy red shoes for Abby... but guess who found them first? That's my boy. He was proud as a peacock strutting around in these puppies. You know us... gotta start debunking those sexist sterotypes when they're young. Who says boys can't wear red and black polka dots?? This combined with Jake wearing three necklaces, two bracelets, two rings, and a watch all last week almost put Brian over the edge :) They do keep us laughing, these two Alan Boys.

Shannon Visits

Shannon and her kids came to visit this weekend. We had a great time- albeit a little hectic with five kids in the house! It was a far cry from the old days at Club Med- late nights dancing, drinking, and partying, sleeping late, and spending all day lounging in the hot sun. The closest we came to "lounging" was sitting around the family room eating Ben and Jerry's (yeah... I still had a little left from Mother's Day) and watching Music and Lyrics while hoping that none of the children woke up. Late nights? Let's see... does waking up at 3AM with a barfy kid count? Or pacing with a crying baby? Partying was not in the picture, unless you count the hour and a half we spent out to lunch trying to keep four kids (Tanner was at school) happy and ferrying them back and forth to the restroom. Drinking? Let's see... we both had several diet cokes and poured many glasses of apple juice. And sleeping late? What's that again?

I reread this and it sounds like I am bitter or missing the old days.... but reality is this is what Shannon and I both always dreamed of as we lay there on the sandy beaches of Mexico. This family life is what we both were looking for all along. Yeah... a few days of R and R away from the kids would be nice, and maybe Shannon and I will get to do that together again someday soon (Brian and Matthew willing, of course) but this weekend was wonderful. We got to be moms together and enjoy our kids laughter as they forged their friendship. We got to laugh and shake our heads and compare notes and support each other in our days (and nights) of crazy chaos. Motherhood is not something you should do in isolation. It does take a village. This visit reminded me of why Shannon and I are such good friends... even 700 miles apart :)

Kid Stuff....random occurances from Brian

Tanner's Story:
If you can't tell from the photos, we got Tanner's first haircut today....went about as well as could be expected. Tanner dosen't deal with change (or strangers) well. His hair had gotten out of control, it was splotchy (long in some areas, non-existant in others). I applied a lawn care analogy to it, it you cut it, it will encourage new growth, so we decided to give it a try. There is a before, during and after photo. Tanner would have none of it, so he had to sit on Marisa's lap at the Fantastic Sams and she had to basically hold his head still. He was moving too much for them to use scissors, so they had to just use the electric shaver, and thus....Tanner the Marine Seargant!

His haircut makes him look so much bigger. He was fine as soon as they were done and back to normal. He was feeling for his hair the whole way home, touching his head and saying, "Ow, Ow,Ow..."

Jake's Story:
Those of you who know me, know that I have a thing for music. It's always on and I take it everywhere I go. There are 8700 songs on my iPod, and I play it all of the time when the kids are around (I try to skip past the Linkin Park, Nine Inch Nails and Kid Rock during family time..), so it is no big surprise that Jake really likes music. We have made several mix CD's for him of songs that I think he might like or expresses interest in when he hears them when I have them on. His CD's range from Bon Jovi to Alan Jackson to Bruce Springsteen. Tonight during dinner we were all rockin out to Boz Scaggs, Nick Lowe and Snow Patrol. This love of adult music does lead to some great moments...like the one that happened this morning;

I had the iPod on when I was making breakfast this morning. Jake always asks to hear "his" songs, depending on my mood sometimes I let him, sometimes I don't, but this morning I said okay. I asked him which one of his songs he wanted to hear. He said he wanted to hear "the log song". I have never heard of "the log song" so I told him I didn't know that song, how does it go? He proceeded to sing, " I fought the log and that log won, I fought the log and the log won!" while jumping around. After I stopped laughing, I put on the Bobby Fuller Four's, "I fought the Law", and continued on with the morning...

Faith's Story:
Faith sleeps on you while you walk around. Once she's asleep, you can set her down, but, she only sleeps on her tummy, which, parents out there know, is a no no (the fear of SIDS) so, needless to say, setting her down and keeping her happy has been tough. Normally, she is okay on her back, but only if she is awake, so you can set her down and get some stuff done. She likes to lay on the bed, the floor, the couch, the chair...yesterday she rolled off of the chair and ended up on the ground, crying. Now we can't put her there either.....

Grandpa Phil, The Golden State Warriors, and Baseball...

Grandpa Phil and Joan visted us here in Boise last weekend over Mother's Day. They are on a whirlwind tour of the states, going from Indiana, thru Minnesota, Idaho, California and on to Arizona. They stayed with us here for a couple of days over the weekend.

Grandpa got to see Jake's baseball skills on full display. I know that we have talked about it ad nausem, but the boy has some serious skills for a four year old. He has been hitting live pitching for almost a year now and has just amazing hand eye coordination. We have a bucket of about 20 balls that I pitch to him, and he hits right around .400 to .450 each time we go thru the bucket (I swear that I am not one of THOSE dads, but I wanted to see how he was doing ... I think that stats for kids are satanic, really!). When Grandpa Phil was here, we played a couple of games of baseball. Jake went thru two buckets of balls, one pitched by me and one by Grandpa Phil. Jake hit 8 home runs (not cheapies, these actually clear our fence...), four off of me and four off of Grandpa Phil, who obviously has never pitched to him before. He is going to be really bored next year when he has to hit off of the tee in tee-ball.

In addition to baseball, we went out to lunch, dinner, went to the Farmers Market, enjoyed a picnic and first concert of the year on the green and had soccer practice as well. I sometimes help coach during soccer practice, although I have yet to coach Jake's team (definitely the more focused of the two groups). I coach the yellow team. My team likes to take drink breaks in the middle of the game. I will turn around and have one player on the field, three over getting drinks and two that have wandered off over by the tennis court to look at bugs. Jake and his team run roughshod over the yellow team, but they are four years old, so no one cares. Week before last (I did not coach), the yellow team decided that they did not want to play anymore, so it became the green team against the parents. I have always been able to at least field a team....one player maybe, but that one player was fully committed to victory!....See I told you I wasn't one of those dads.

The main focus of the weekend however was the Golden State Warriors playoff series with the Utah Jazz. For those who don't know, Uncle Eric (my cousin) is the Equipment Manager for the Warriors. He has been working with them for as long as I can remember. He started as a ball boy, and has been there through some horrificly bad years, so this playoff series is a big deal in my family. Jake and I went to a game earlier this season and met Eric and had a really good time, Jake just loved it. We watch the games a little differently then most NBA fans....some comments in out living room, "There's Uncle Erics head, behind the players knee", "There is Eric's foot"...but we have a good time. In fact, I am watching game five right now as I type. We watched two games with Grandpa Phil here-they won one and lost one.

It was really good to see my Dad. He had never met Tanner, and also was able to meet Faith for the first time. We had a really good time and will hopefully be able to see them more frequently in the future.

Mother's Day

I really should have stock in Ben and Jerry's and Haagen Daaz. Brian has been razzing me for months about the amount of ice cream I eat. OK, I admit, buying three pints during our Sunday shopping trip is a little extreme. I got A LOT of crap for that, probably deserved. So, the picture above shows the gift my hubby got me for Mother's Day: SIX PINTS of B and J's- all different flavors. Maybe it was a "joke" gift, but I have to say it was a much appreciated one! I'd like to say that I'll be set on ice cream for the month but, sadly, it won't last that long. In any case, I was appropriately spoiled over Mother's Day weekend by my hubby (breakfast, sleeping in), my boys (cards and handmade gifts), and Faith (she slept for FIVE hours on Friday night!). Happy Mother's Day!

In Which Tanner Wields a Knife and Jake Calls 911

I Bet I hooked ya with that title, huh? In reality the knife and 911 stories are totally unrelated, but pretty funny nonetheless.

A few months ago Auntie Sue sent the boys a book that teaches you how to call 911. It has a little keypad attached and you can actually dial the numbers and it tells you under what circumstances you should call. We had read it quite a few times, then one day as I was trying to juggle all three kids (feeding Faith, reading to Tanner, playing basketball with Jake- yes, all at the same time!) Tanner fell off the couch and hit his head. He immediately started screaming, so I detached Faith which set HER into screaming. At this point Jake ran out of the room. I was too busy to worry about what he was doing, so I tended to the littler ones (priorities, you know?). As I was calming both kids down Jake returned to the living room holding my cell phone. He said, "Don't worry, Mom, I called 911!". Sure enough- when he handed me my phone I could see that he had dialed the numbers but thankfully had not yet sent the call. Since we don't have a home phone he had run and found my cell and dialed for help. Although I was pleasantly surprised to know that he could handle the task, a conversation about what constitues "an emergency" followed.(Perhaps I should be less dramatic?) Don't worry... I also showed him how to send a call in case a real emergency ever occurs.

You'll have to keep reading to get to the knife story...


Tanner continues to be a crack up. He is so much more expressive and verbal than a few months ago. We call him "Our Little Russian Boy".

"Tanner, do you want some applesauce?"
"NO!" (accompanied by vigerous head shaking)
"Tanner, do you want a cookie?"
"DA!" (rhymes with "bra" and said with great gusto and a huge smile). "DA!" is his word of choice these days.

He charms us and charms us with his giggles and grins, bringing us books to read to him, balls to throw to him, and toys to play with him. But when this kid is done, he is DONE. He knows his limits. Around 6:30-7:00 each evening he begins to get a little sensitve and cry easily. We know it is time for us to ask the question: "Tanner, do you want to go night-night?"
"DA!" is his usual response. When we tell him to say night night to Grandma or Jake or Faith he waves vaguely in their direction while muttering "nigh nigh" with his eyes trained on his bedroom door. We put him in his crib and he rolls over and goes to sleep, often times not to be heard from again until 7:30 the next morning.

His new skill is climbing ladders. He figured out how to get to the top of Jake's bunkbed ...and boy does he think it is cool. He climbs up there and then just giggles and giggles. He can climb the ladder to the slide outside, too, and then scares me to death trying to go back down the ladder with clearly no idea how to do so safely. He climbs any stool or ladder he sees and takes the stairs like he has has been doing it forever. This brings us to the knife story...

Being the older brother Jake sometimes wants to micromanage his brother's behavior. So, we had just been telling Jake that we are Tanner's parents,not him, and letting him know that we would worry about Tanner- he just needed to take care of himself. Not 60 seconds later I was at the sink washing dishes and Jake was at the table. I hear Jake yell, "Mom, Tanner has a knife!". I turn around and, sure enough, there's my boy, standing on his stool at the counter behind me weilding a Henkles paring knife that I had left on the counter after cutting up roast beef. So much for us taking care of Tanner without Jake's help. Needless to say we are all much more careful about what we leave on the counter these days!

Faith is growing by leaps and bounds. She is sleeping better, although she is still pretty high maintenance. I guess she doesn't understand that mommy went back to work and needs her rest! I am enjoying dressing her way too much! Tanner and Jake both adore their baby sister. They shower her with kisses and hugs and bring her things they think she might want: a blanket, a binky,or a bottle. First thing in the morning and when he gets home from school one of the first questions out of Tanner's mouth is, "Baby?" (That's after demanding juice and a snack, of course).
For an 18 month old he really is quite good with her. My greatest hope is that her brothers will be her biggest fans for many years to come- and vice versa :)

First Smiles

Here are the first smiles I was able to capture on camera. She started with little smiles a few weeks ago, but in the last few days has gone to full fledged grins. She loves to be talked to, told how pretty she is, and to have her big brother Jake "click" his tongue at her. She is eight weeks old already. She is still not sleeping well- but we have made a little progress at getting her into her crib. We can sometimes get 1-3 hours with her there, but mostly she still sleeps tucked into my arm or next to her daddy. I go back to work a week from today and I think I may need Mary to bring her to visit at lunchtime to help with the withdrawl symptoms I am sure to experience. Luckily I only have 16 days of work before summer vacation begins :)

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Let me just say (not for the first time and probably not for the last) I cannot imagine being a single mom. Brian has been gone for training in LA for almost two weeks. I'm not sure who misses who the most. Brian has been so sad without his boys and daughter (and wife, he assures me). He keeps asking me how the kids (still feels really weird not to say "the boys") are changing and is worried they will "be different kids" when he returns. He talks to them 2-3 times each day. The boys also miss him a bunch. Jake has been keeping a calendar on our blackboard and "x"ing one day off each night. There were a lot of distractions, however. My mom was here to help for the entire time (Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Ma!), then all my sisters came to visit for a long weekend. Aunt Kiri stayed on for another 3 days and, baseball fan and "Boy Mom Extraordinare" that she is, she entertained Jake immensely. Tanner just keeps repeating "Dada! Dada!" loudly and often, especially when he notices Brian's car out front or when he sees my cell phone. Faith, obviously, is still too young to notice, but let me tell ya... I NOTICE, especially at 12, 3, and 5AM when she wants to eat and I am the only one to get up with her! (To be fair, my mom has been WONDERFUL and has taken her quite a bit in the wee hours, but it's just not the same as having Brian here to do the duty!). I have never been without him for this long- in our six years together. It has definitely been a challenge and I miss him like crazy. So, it's a toss up. He misses us; we miss him. All I know is that we are all counting the hours until our family is together again and remembering how blessed we are to only have had to do two weeks apart.

Scars

Tanner and Jake. Brothers. Boys. They are both just a mess right now. Tanner fell, not once, not twice, but three times over Easter Weekend. He is now sporting a large bump on the noggin', scrapes and cuts on his nose, ear and lip, and the last vestiges on the splinter infestation on his legs and feet. Jake has various scrapes, cuts and bruises and currently sports no less that three bandaids on various fingers. My point is this, they are boys, they fall down, they get scrapes, they get cuts. I realize that Marisa is in a foriegn land here and doesn't understand how the male mind works, so I am going to lay down some education here for the female readers.

Scars are how men (and boys) measure life. If you don't have scars, it means that you are not trying hard enough. If you can jump down from the fifth step and not get hurt, then it goes without saying that you HAVE to try from the sixth! If you can ride down the street at breakneck speed and make it unscathed, then of course you need to see if you can do it with no hands, duh! There is no failure (or sucess) that can't be measured with damaged flesh in the world of boys.

The boys are just being boys. They love their little sister and maybe Faith can help Marisa just realize that they are boys and that's how they do things. See this scar here on my elbow? This is from when I got thrown off the horse when I was five. This scar on my leg? This is when I fell out of the tree.......

Easter '07

As you can see....Easter...big friggin deal at the Alan household. Hidden Springs holds it's own Easter Egg hunt for the kids in the community. The photo above is of the hunt just for the toddlers/preschoolers. There were four other hunts about this size (50 or so kids) as well, scattered throughout the community. Both of the boys had a very good time. The weather was amazing, temps into the mid 80's, adding the element of MELTED easter chocolate to the festivities as the eggs were laid out in the meadow beforehand in the sun.

It is so interesting to see how you fall on the parental spectrum....from one end, the parents who were griping that the hunt was supposed to start at 2:30 and it was 2:32 for pete's sake...as well as the starter, who refused to give the go ahead until the two children (preshoolers mind you!) who were on the lawn moved back to the sidewalk...to the other end, the parents who apparently didn't follow the logic thru that if you brought 12 eggs per child to be hidden that was how many you should take, and who also didn't listen to the aforementioned starter lady, who said (via megaphone) to try to limit your child to his/her 12 eggs so that everyone could find some and left with their kids holding buckets that had to have 30-40 eggs in them. We watched it all with amusement: Jake got his 12 eggs, Tanner was happy just picking up discarded pieces of other kids eggs, so we just let him have his fun.

There were treats galore and Jake got to see the Easter Bunny. We decided not to subject Tanner to the Easter Bunny as he is just getting over his Santa Claus trauma. A good time was had by all. BUT, BUT, BUT...

Of course this was not enough. We also had to have an Easter Egg hunt at our house the next day. There were presents (from the Easter Bunny known as "Grandma Mary" and "Auntie Sue"), more eggs (MANY more than the allotment of 12 from the prior day) and more candy as well. We took a picture of Jakes candy bowl (not dish...bowl) and I debated posting that... but to be honest, it makes me feel like a bad parent.....Happy Easter.

Faith's first month...

Faith is one month old already, she just had her first Easter, she is starting to stay awake more often and seems more alert, she is growing up ALREADY!

She is doing really well. She is starting to sleep in stretches more (3-4 hours at a time at night now), which is making things a little easier on Marisa. I have the late shift and the early shift and Marisa gets the in between at night. She passes the time watching TV shows on DVD in the bonus room while she feeds Faith, I watch ESPN news (thank god it's baseball season!)

I am still trying to adjust to a little girl. The diaper gets wet in a totally different place and when I go to clean her up, there is still a pause while I get the logistics straightened out, but she has truly found a place in our lives, hearts, and home. She is well loved by her brothers and is the hit of all the visitors to the house. Both Nikko and Shannon were just here and I think they were as taken in by her as we are.

Happy one month b-day Faith (or "Fafey" as Jake calls her). Slow down, don't grow up so fast....there's really no rush....

If Mary Never Leaves...

...Brian and I may be able to handle being parents of three. She has been a miracle to us and is probably the main reason none of us are in the insane asylum yet. She plays nonstop with Jake, takes early morning feedings with Faith, and dotes on Tanner- not to mention keeping Brian and I well fed. She is currently making homemade cinnamon roles with Jake. The real test will be what happens after Mary leaves on Tuesday. Yes, THIS Tuesday. We will go it alone. In reality I have no doubt we will be just fine, but it sure has been wonderful having Grandma here to help us ease into our new reality!

Faith is almost a month old already. She is getting bigger all the time and is already out of her newborn diapers- this is a silly "milestone" that made me sad with both the boys and with her, too!
She is sleeping better now and has actually gone a few times for 3-4 hours without eating. Sleep, for me, is still elusive and is taken in 1-3 hour increments, but I am feeling much better and more and more like my old self. 2AM feedings are made much more enjoyable by watching the second season of Grey's Anatomy. LOVE that show! Faith is alert for longer periods during the day and now that I have more energy I am looking forward to taking her out more often and showing her off.

Tanner. What can I say about my Tanner? He is a pure joy right now. He has gained 5 pounds since Christmas and now resembles a football player so much that I just look at him in his little "letterman jacket" and can see him thundering through the door when he is 16, wearing his football gear and heading straight for the refrigerator (hopefully still sweet enough to stop and give his old mom a kiss on the way!). His teacher at school told me that in the last month he has changed drastically. He goes to anyone now, willingly. He walks and runs everywhere and is so happy all the time. She said that he eats like a horse there, too, and bums all the teachers lunches off of them by batting those long eyelashes and rubbing his tummy (this is how he says "please"). He is a tank. And such a love. He often stops to give his sister kisses, cover her with her blanket, and bring her the binkie. He gives everyone hugs. He thinks the word "No" is hysterical and is definitely starting to be mischievious. Seriously.... pure, unadulterated joy. I plan to enjoy it while it lasts!!!!

Jake. Jake, Jake, Jake. So far "four" is a challenge. (I love you like nobody's business, Buddy, but "unadulterated joy" are not the two words I would use to describe you right now. "Challenging" and "Lucky to be alive" come to the tip of my tongue.) I think having the baby sister has exacerbated some of his personality traits- both good and bad. He is more sensitive, more needy, and more loving. He is still on our floor. In fact, he hasn't even been in his bedroom for a month. I keep reminding myself that there are millions of children that have survived having siblings (and millions of parents that have survived having four year olds) without ill effects. Luckily he does seem to love his sister. He wants to hold her, play with her, and just look at her. He still loves his school and it is more and more apparant each day how much they love him. My qualms of "too many worksheets" go out the window when I see the kind of love he he gets from his teachers and watch how he is thriving there.

On another note...Baseball season starts tomorrow!!! Go GIANTS :)

"I'm Cookin' With Gas Now, Baby!"

The title refers to Jake's enthusiastic statement as he was playing Bingo the night before his birthday. He was on a winning streak and that is what came out of his mouth. We all just busted up. That little guy definitely keeps me laughing.

My Jake... four years old already. This was the first year he really understood about his birthday and he looked forward to it for weeks and weeks. I think we started the countdown at 7 weeks and continued until there was only one day left. He was practically beside himself the night before in anticipation.

The party was definitely a success. He had such a great time. Since Faith was just born we did it the easy way: paid someone else to do all the work. He had his party at a place called KidVenture Island- a big play yard made to look like a pirate ship. He invited 6 school friends and they had the run of the place.

Here are some of the little things I want to remember about Jake at this age:

- He loves to listen to "his" music- this includes Bruce Springsteen, Brad Paisley, Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, and lots of others. He loves Buffett's new album and sings along loudly to "Dukes on Sunday", "Breathe in Breathe Out", and "Bama Breeze". I do feel a twinge of mom guilt (and Parrothead pride) as he belts out the lyrics to the latter, "Jimmy got caught smokin' a joint out behind the bar, sittin' in his car, and they took him to jail. The tip jar paid his bail." Very funny to hear.
-He is very loving and kind. Everyday when I was sick with morning sickness and then when I was recuperating from the C-section he would crawl up on my bed and offer to rub my back and give me saltines to eat. He would kiss my head and tell me it was OK.
-He LOVES baseball and is a very talented player (if I do say so myself!). Forget T-Ball. This kid is into straight pitching and can hit a large percentage of the pitches dad throws to him- many going out of the yard and over the fence. He loves to act like Babe Ruth and point over the fence before hitting a ball.
- He is a great big brother to both Tanner and Faith.

I could go on and on, but since this is for public viewing, not only my own personal diary, I will keep it short in order not to bore others with my stereotypical mom braggings.

In any case... Happy Birthday, Jake. We love you more each day and wait eagerly as we continue to watch you grow into a wonderful little boy.

The Best Birthday Present Ever

Jake's Auntie Sue, as many of you know, is one of his most favorite people in the world. Ok... who am I kidding? She actually IS his favorite person in the world. For his birthday Auntie Sue decided to fly out to Boise to surprise him. When he got home from school on Friday we told him that a large package had arrived in the mail for him. It was waiting in front of the fireplace. Actually, that's Auntie Sue in there, just waiting for Jake to "open her up". He walked up to the bag, started patting it (her head) and pulling on it (her hair). At that point I warned him that it may be breakable. I helped him get the bow off and lift up the bag...and boy was he surprised!!!

There are so many times in life that we hope for a certain reaction from the people we love, only to be disappointed when they are less than thrilled by a surprise we have arranged or a present we have bought. This was NOT one of those times. He was shocked, yelled excitedly, then ran to daddy laughing hysterically. He threw his arms around Auntie Sue and just hugged and hugged. When we asked him what he thought might have been in that big bag he said, "A chair!".

The two of them have been playing nonstop since.- baseball, basketball, golf, soccer, on the playground, Trouble, Bingo, sword fighting, hide-and-go-seek, and a myriad of other things. Poor Auntie Sue is on her last legs and she has two more days to go!

I think Jake will remember this surprise for the rest of his life: the year he got an "Auntie Sue" for his birthday :) If only all children could be so lucky.

Glad to be Home

I can't believe it is Tuesday already and Faith is a week old. Time flies when you are having fun...

We arrived home from the hospital on Friday afternoon. After showing Faith around her home and settling back in, we had a few hours to rest before picking the boys up from school. That's when the real fun began! Both boys, understandably, were needy and wanted nothing more to do with The Grandmas once mom and dad were back in town. Tanner, especially, was having nothing to do with either Cori or Mary and only wanted DADDY. Since I am unable to pick him up (a little heartbreaking for me, yes) he cried everytime Brian left his sight. Jake- sensitive and emotional in the best of circumstances- tried his best to "behave" but was close to tears anytime anyone looked at him wrong. We spent the weekend trying our best to balance out attention to the two boys and Faith. Luckily it was a gorgeous spring weekend and we got to play baseball outside both days. Tanner was the ball boy, Jake alternated pitching and hitting with Brian, and Mary and Cori were the umpires/Tanner patrol. You guessed it... Faith and I were the loyal fans, cheering from the "bleachers" (a lone lawn chair on the patio). It was just what I needed to push through those initial baby blues and worries of chaos overtaking my world.

Faith seems to be the hungriest of my three babes. Unless I am remembering wrong, the boys didn't wake up that frequently at night to eat. This little girl is up every 1/5-2 hours. She, like her mama, likes her food! She is a doll and I love to watch her sleeping or look at her wide awake eyes as they scan the room, trying to make sense out of this new world she has found herself in. I have to admit I am loving the pink outfits and am getting over my shock each time I change her diaper and find something other than boy parts down there. As trite as it may sound, we are truly blessed by this surprise baby.

Tanner continues to charm with his easy disposition, his expanding vocabulary, the pure joy he exhibits when playing games such as "Throw the Baby Aspirator" and "Monkey Toss", and his wonderful ability to sleep for LONG stretches at night :)

Although Jake continues to vex us with his unwillingness to sleep in his own bed (our room now consists of our bed, the dog's bed, Faith's crib, and Jake's mat) and his sleeping hours now mimic ours: bed at 9, wake up at 7:30 (except he doesn't have to get up with Faith all night long!), we still think he's a keeper and are hoping he won't still be on our floor the night before high school graduation. He is so excited about his birthday party this weekend. He has no idea, but Auntie Sue is showing up for a surprise visit in order to be at the party. The real question is: Will he play with his school friends or only have eyes for his Auntie Sue?

Mom had to leave on Sunday, but it was so nice to have her here while we were in the hospital and for our first two days home. Mary is taking great care of us all as I recuperate. I am actually feeling really good... tired and sore, but good. Thanks to everyone for your well-wishes. We miss you all and can't wait to introduce you to the newest (and last!) member of our family :)

At long last......TANNER WALKS!!!!!

In an event worthy of it's own post and not being lumped in with his sister, Gooey's has finally decided to walk. We have had a sneaking suspicion that he has been able to do this for awhile now, but wasn't for some reason.

Well, the night before we went to the hosiptal, he decided to get it over with. Whether it was the impending homecoming of his sister,and him wanting to make sure that the event was not lost in the shuffle, or, as I believe, he didn't feel that his immediate family was a grand enough crowd for the event and wanted to wait until the grandma's got here to unveil his skills, he now toddles all over. None of the two or three shakey steps for our man Goo....he is off full speed across the living room, Mom's hospital room etc.

It's like the quote from Forrest Gump, " From that moment on...anywhere I was going....I was RUNNING." Off to the races Tanner Man...we love you!

Have a little Faith...

Faith Wilder Alan was born on Tuesday, March 6, 2007 @ 9:29 AM. She weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz and was 21" long. Both Mom and baby are doing fine and resting in the hospital. I am just home for a shower and change of clothes and will be heading right back. It looks like we will be coming home tomorrow sometime. As you can see she already loves her big brothers. Jake has held her each time he has come to visit the hospital and always asks how she is doing.

The boys are having a great time with "the Grandma's" and are both doing fine. We will get some other photos up and somemore tidbits this weeked. We are not allowed to use cell phones and the hospital does not have high speed wireless access, so this has been our first chance to get some pix out. We'll send some more out his weekend once we are home.....