Love my almond painted walls.  Love my new thick carpet.  And I can think of two more things I love.

Woo-ooooo-ooo-oooo I get around!  {And backwards, and in circles.  But still working on forward.}

Samuel has stepped it up big time, and I can almost always count on him to help me out when I need it.  He loves to grab a diaper and wipes, and watch over my shoulder giving me the play by play each time I change Owen.  “Put baby Owen down.  Time change his diaper.  Eeeew yucky poo.  Clean up yucky poo.  Ok, let’s throw diaper away.”  If Owen is crying, Sam runs over and asks, “Oh, he so sad.  What’s wrong, baby O?”  Samuel also likes to put in Owen’s pacifier, whether he needs it or not.  And if he finds a blanket, it quickly gets put on Owen.  The other afternoon Samuel was playing in the window, Owen was happy in the bouncer, and I kept checking in as I emptied the dishwasher.  At one point I peaked around the corner and saw Owen, still quiet and content, legs bouncing, arms pumping, head completely covered with a burp cloth.  Thanks, Helper Sam. 

So around 1:00 can be a pretty crazy time here.  It’s wrapping up lunch, getting ready for naptime, changing diapers, and juggling two fussy boys.  One afternoon I could not get Owen to calm down, Sam had just loaded his diaper, and I was getting frazzled to say the least.  In an attempt to do it all, I put Owen and Sam next to each other and instructed Sam to make Owen happy while I changed their diapers.  Well, my little helper knew just what to do.  He stuck his finger into Owen’s mouth and instantly it was quiet.  Samuel looked at me just beaming with success, totally pleased with himself.  It was adorable.  After a few minutes, when Sam’s charm wore off and Owen kept hollering, Sam knew he had done all he could and concluded,  “Oh, he needs milk!”

Erik did a great job giving a detailed account of Owen’s rocket ride here to our family.  The biggest shock for me was how fast everything went.  It barely gave me a chance to take it all in.  With Samuel, it was still a pretty quick delivery at 6 hours, but I had to push for 2 1/2.  So this time, when all of a sudden I was being flung into stirrups, surrounded by several nurses, watching the doctor rush in, and being told to PUSH PUSH PUSH, I barely had time to even think “Oh, wow, I’m pushing already” when Erik said, “I can see his head.  Now I see his ears.”  I’m pretty sure I said, “What?!  Are you serious?!”  And then all of a sudden there was a baby, and I just could not believe how crazy fast it happened.

Like Erik wrote, there were some scary moments.  Probably for me, the scariest was driving to the hospital at 4 am, tears streaming down my face, squeezing Erik’s hand, and imagining the best case scenario as an emergency c-section.  I am so thankful for the power of prayer, for the faith of my husband, and all the many blessings our little family received that night, the best one of course being little Owen James.

So after a few busy days at the hospital, we are home!!  We were discharged this morning, and spent an excellent day back in real life.  Samuel was so excited to see all three of us, and ran outside yelling in his shakey excited voice, “Hey Daddy!  Hey Mommy!  Ooh, it’s the baby.”  He has been so great helping out, giving soft touches, and just being a good sport all around.

Owen . . . well . . . who knew?!  Who knew babies ATE and SLEPT?!  I am totally shooting myself in the foot, I’m sure, and knocking awfully loud on wood right now, but holy moley is he just one sweet little angel.  Owen has slept most of the day, woken up to feed every 2 hours for about 15 minutes, let us look at him for a bit, before falling back asleep.  He even fell asleep while I changed a poopy diaper.  He makes the cutest little whines while he sleeps, I so love his fuzzy blonde head, and I can’t stop giving eskimo kisses to his darling button nose.

And now, as the percacet does its work, I should probably get some rest.  But I must say, day one at home was a success.  If my mom moves in, Erik becomes a stay-at-home dad, and we continue to have meals delivered to our door, I’m pretty sure I can totally do this!

Sometimes {usually} I can’t keep up with Samuel.  Usually {sometimes} I try but I often can’t keep up.  We had a rough day on Monday.  This is what my house looked like.  Now, I can make lots of excuses.  I’m pregnant, I’m tired, I’m sick, I don’t have enough storage space in this house, I’m lazy, blah blah blah.  But my number one excuse can be spotted in each of the following pictures . . . my own little version of Where’s Waldo.  And mind you, this is only the downstairs.

Maybe one day I’ll be that mom who’s got it all together.  Maybe!

Not so much a moment for mourning, as a silent moment of reverence.  Do you hear that?  Ssh, listen . . . it’s angels!  Choirs of angels!  They’re singing!!

Been to my house since I’ve been pregnant?  Then you certainly haven’t seen that, have you?!  For the first time in months, my kitchen {I know, could it be any smaller?} is 100% perfectly clean.  It felt so good, I made Erik take Sam to the drive-thru for dinner.  I’m not ready to mess it up.

And you know what makes it even better?  The rest of the downstairs is all clean, too!!  So, I am sitting here taking it all in . . . nothing but the twinkling Christmas lights, the soft glow of my lap top, the hum of the monitor, and my sparkly clean home.  Enjoying it while I can.  Cozy and peaceful.

 I’m taking wagers on how long this will actually last.  Goober Doober wakes up at 8:00 . . .

. . . dumping the bag of yogurt raisins into my slippers for me to discover hours later.

. . . “cleaning up” his crayons by putting them in the box of wipes.

. . . and walking around with Q-tips hanging out of his ears.

Hardly.  But I’ll probably keep telling myself that, anyway.  Sam and I do our best to keep things spiced up here at home on hot days when we don’t have the car.  Forts are always a huge hit. {<- that’s a link, i dont know why i cant make it work right} Sam thinks it’s so funny when I get inside with him.

Same Pajamas, Different Day.  [I probably should have had Erik photoshop some real clothes on Sam.  Despite what almost every single picture I post shows, I promise Sam isn't always in his pajamas.]

Being a skinny scrawny twirp can pay off.  Sam’s teeny tiny bum had no problems fitting on the window sill; a perfect seat for watching the man aerate and fertilize our lawn.  And I definitely did not give Sam even one ounce of help getting up there.  That was all him, the little monkey!