Chick-fil-A

Now that Cameron is doing his rotations it's a rare occasion when we get to have lunch with him. During his first two years of medical school we would meet on campus once a week to eat together. so on Friday when Cameron called because he had a few hours before his next lecture and I happened to be driving in the area, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and meet for a late lunch. we took the kids to Chick-fil-A and even got ice cream cones. We all had a great time. It may be hard to tell but Cameron has a small cone and Dallin has a "kiddie" cone... yeah they were both surprisingly huge.

Say cheese....

Gotta love ice cream...

Katelyn showing off her messy chin... I think Dallin wins in messiness...

A True Floridian

When I woke up last Friday there was an unusual chill, I pulled the covers up to my chin and tried to go back to sleep, not too difficult when you only get one or two hours of sleep between feedings. As I snuggled deeper into the covers, I thought of my children, probably out of their covers and freezing. Of course by this time I realize I can hear them running around in the kitchen, Cameron was up getting breakfast. So I quickly got out of bed and grabbed socks and a jacket. Once in the kitchen I notice the thermostat reads 68 degree… since when did 68 degrees feel this cold? Of course it’s colder outside then inside so I find myself layering the kids up with sweaters and jackets, Cameron is constantly reminding me that they aren’t going to lose a limb to frost bit in 6o degree weather… a good point. I think this qualifies me as an official Floridian

Grant likes his bedding and clothes to be clean, I know this because he makes a conscious effort to remind me to wash it often by being sure to spit up all over his own and mine any chance he gets. it would be awful to over look the bedding while doing laundry...

He is also concerned that his parents don't get to spend much alone time together so he takes it upon himself to be awake at 3am, knowing that it's the only time everyone else is asleep so that Cameron and I can bond as we drowsily try to get him back to sleep.

I can cry if I want to

Grant has decided to adopt Katelyn's philosophy of nursing, this usually involves a lot of crying and screaming until the baby decided to swallow and then more screaming and crying ensues until mommy decides that this is fun and all, and I love having a screaming baby so close to me but I doubt that this child is actually eating much so maybe I should pump and give him a bottle.... when that happens there is usually less screaming and crying but still enough to make me wonder, "what on earth did I eat that would result in so much crying?"

Dallin was such a good little eater, he didn't care what I ate, he was just happy to have food... that still seems to be the case, and Katelyn still throws a fit around meal times which is probably why she is considered "high risk" because of the discrepancy between her height and weight.

Thankfully I am an experienced mother who know that this phase only lasts a few weeks, or was it months?

It's a Saturday afternoon/evening and Cameron is at the hospital today doing doctorly things. so I'm at home with my wonderful children doing childrenly things. so far we have watched a movie twice, gone to the library, went to Target and played, played played, in the midst of our day we all took naps, mine of course being the shortest but hey at least I got to take one right?

Katelyn and Dallin have become professional binkie-nappers. it doesn't seem to matter where I hid them, they find them and put them in their mouths for a few minutes only to lose interest and then ditch them in some unexpected place where eventually I find them again and try to hid them again. its a vicious cycle.

we all love Grant and are thrilled to have him in our family. as Katelyn would say "he's tute" in fact we all think he's cute.




I'm sure there is more I could write but I'm taking a great rick right now because Dallin is sitting on my lap and he has a talent of turning off the computer in ways I never even knew existed... so I better go before all is lost.







Dallin was hiding a chocolate candy in his costume, we discovered it at the end of the night. so sneaky.

We didn't knock on a single door this Halloween season but we still managed to get oodles of candy. So how did we manage to get more candy then a whole army of people could possibly be expected to eat? Two evenings of trunk or treating and trick or teating at the library during story time. Of course my two little trick or treaters are determined to eat every last piece. Thankfully they are too young and naive to insist that they should have control of their own loot. So it’s currently stashed away safely above the fridge brought down occasionally as a reward for going potty or having an older sister go potty… and for now their candy is safe from being devoured by hungry mommies because Grant doesn’t like his milk to be contaminated by chocolate, I’ve already eaten their Hot Tamales and I don’t really care too much for lolly pops… although they still have their daddy to be concerned about…

Dallin was a darling Lion this year. Everyone commented on how cute he was. He was a bit concerned about the adults who were dressed up... I think he figured it was ok for kids to dress in funny costumes because kids do that sort of thing, but adults, now that's weird...

Katelyn was a princess of course. she was a princess last year and will probably be a princess next year, I'm not sure when or if she will grown out of the princess phase, but for now it is in full force.

Grant made his grand appearance as a cute pumpkin. and no we were not torturing our baby, it really was still warm enough for him to be completely comfortable in that outfit.

Cameron was almost a clown, or perhaps a medical student with some crazy hair...

Holding Grant

Katelyn and Dallin love holding baby Grant. Every time he wakes up Katelyn and Dallin run to his bassinet shouting "Rant's a-yake" leaving any and all doubt of whether he is or isn't awake because if he wasn't he is now. they just get so excited. They can't wait to hold him. Katelyn especially likes holding him. she is such a great big sister and Dallin is a wonderful big brother.

Dallin, Katelyn and Grant

Katelyn holding Baby Grant with Grandma Lousie

sleeping like a baby

As every mother knows if you find yourself comparing your sleep to a baby's you're probably exhausted. although babies sleep a lot they only sleep for two hours at a time... if you're lucky. It's a good thing they are so adorable.

I keep planning to sit down and writing a post about life with a family of five but I keep getting my mind changed. Generally when I do have time for such things I opt to take a nap and no matter how long I plan to sleep I generally only get to sleep until Katelyn, Dallin or Grant decide it's time for me to wake up. Dallin is especially good at determining when I've slept long enough. it's like he has a sensor radar on me, he plays perfectly fine with or without me until I decide to go lay down for a few minutes and no sooner does my head hit the pillow then he comes knocking on my door calling "daddy?" (we are still working on the "mommy" thing, he calls bananas mamas so Cameron has started comparing me to a banana, so now when he asks for a banana he will say "a mama peaze" and then point at me and shout “mama!” but that's the only time he calls me mama)

Except for the fact that I only sleep in two hour increments throughout the night, I don’t think it’s really hit me that we have three kids yet. My mom leaves on November 1st and I’m sure after that the realities of newbornhood will hit full force, I get small glimpses of what’s to come while my mom is napping or on the phone and I have to figure out how to nurse Grant and help Katelyn who has fallen apart because she needs Catsup for her eggs while consoling Dallin who has tried to drown himself with his cup of water.

Grant doesn’t like it when I eat chocolate, in fact when I do eat a small smiggin of chocolate he makes the experience so miserable that I have decided that it’s just not worth it. It’s all part of his plan to make me shed the baby weight before I go back to the outside world… so thoughtful.

Katelyn and Dallin love Grant, they want to hold him all the time... well Katelyn does, Dallin mostly doesn't seem to notice Grant much but when Dallin does notice he want to hold him too.

Grant William Smith

One of the cutest little guys ever just joined our family. He decided to make a quick entrance on his due date... he’s so considerate. I figured, based on my other two deliveries that this one would be fast, and although the doctor wasn’t too concerned about me delivering a baby on the side of the freeway as I was driving myself to the hospital, I was completely freaked out about it. Cameron’s mom Louise sensed my anxiety and came up early to help. Tuesday we found ourselves doing typical running around with the kids, going to the library, park, Mc Donald’s and shopping, around 4:30pm I started noticing contractions, they weren’t painful but they were regular… every 15 minutes, I called Cameron, he came home and we left, during traffic, to go to the hospital. It took about an hour and during that time my contractions stopped. We stopped at the mall and walked around a while. I would have a contraction every once in a while but nothing to write home about. Cameron was exhausted but I was determined that as long as we were down there, without kids we might as well make a date out of it. So we went out to eat. At 8:30pm, during our meal we called Louise to tell her nothing was happening and we were planning to come home. Ten minutes after hanging up I started having contractions again, this time every ten minutes, then 7 minutes, then 5 minutes. So I tried to rush Cameron along to get me to the hospital, he seemed to be dawdling, apparently when you’re not the one having contractions you don’t have the same sense of urgency. We got to the hospital at 9pm after an incident with a wasp, Cameron got stung in the car, the good news is, apparently he’s not allergic, that could have added a bit more excitement to our night…
All the rooms were full so I was taken into triage where I changed into those oh so flattering hospital gowns that open in the back. They checked me, asked me a million and one questions and decided I could stay. We all walked to labor and delivery, which was just down the hall and my water broke gushing everywhere. So gross! I was so grateful I wasn’t walking around the mall at this point. That would have been very embarrassing! It didn’t phase anyone in the hospital. It was brownish which apparently means there was meconium in the fluid… or in other words…the baby already had his first poop. So they called in a few more people to be there when the baby was delivered so they could clean out his air passage ways before he could breath it in and affect his lungs. No big deal because by the time you actually deliver a baby you don’t really care how many people are there. Soon after my water broke the contractions started coming much stronger and much faster.
They took my blood to see if my platelet count was high enough for an epidural. Apparently if your blood platelet count isn’t high enough you could bleed to death…which didn’t sound all that bad at the time. So we waited for the results. Cameron was so good, he did everything he could to make me feel better; I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. Finally a nurse came in, said everything was fine and we prepared for the anistgiologest. She came did what she does best and I felt immediate relief. A few minutes later the doctor showed up, checked things out and told the nurses to have me start pushing with the next contraction. I was kind of hoping I could just enjoy the relief of the epidural for a while but I started pushing instead. 4 pushes later Grant was born and he peed all over Dr Cazes. They cleaned his lungs and he’s as healthy as can be.

So that’s probably way more information then you bargained for. We are home now. Louise is taking good care of everyone. Laundry is magically getting cleaned, folded and put away, the house is getting cleaned and meals magically appear. The kids love having both mom and grandma around. Louise goes home this weekend and my mom comes in tonight. I’m sure they will love having her here as well.

Katelyn loves the new baby. She is so helpful and considerate. She wants to bring him toys, blankets, and anything else he could possibly need. She loves smothering him with kisses and holding him on her lap. Dallin seems to like Grant as well but is too busy doing his own thing to really notice this new little guy. When he does notice he enjoys pointing out Grant’s facial features and saying wah wah wah, which is Dallin’s word for baby. Grant is quite the eater. So far he does pretty well at night. We are so grateful to have him in our family

Oh my how we've grown

as unbelievable as it seems, Katelyn is three now. she is changing and growing before my very eyes. I can't believe how fast it's all happening.



this is Katelyn when we brought her home from the hospital at 3 days old. She really did have black hair with frosted tips that stuck straight up, she had the cutest chunkiest cheeks and long fingers and toes. unfortunately she was not a fan of nursing, which didn't affect her fingers and toes but did cause her cheeks to thin out.



This is Katelyn around her first birthday. Everyday she looked more and more like a little person and less and less like a baby. Although amazingly she still had cute little rolls on her legs, a pop belly and a slightly chubby round face. It’s amazing because she is also the skinniest little one-year-old I had ever seen. She didn't like eating much. Well she liked grapes and pears and cheerios but surprisingly she didn't gain much weight on that diet. Weird, I know. I did feed her more then that, she would just play with it, eat a little and then throw the rest on the floor. Lots of fun for everyone. She was so fun and loved to discover new things. She has such a great personality.



This is what she looked like the week she turned two, the month of her birthday we noticed a difference in her demeanor. “No” became her all time favorite word, (well if you don’t count “yellow bus” she loved saying “yellow bus”) and she couldn't just say it, she had to shout and scream it at the top of her lungs. Mostly she became a little grumpier in general. She still had her sweet moments though. She discovered Dallin in the car. For some reason I don’t think she ever noticed that he was there until this time, and she loved to make him laugh. She would pull funny faces and make funny sounds until they were both hysterical.



and this is Katelyn now. she loves to run, laugh and play around the house with Dallin. she is generally very polite and sweet. she loves movies, especially princess movies... really anything princessy. She enjoys coloring, painting, cooking, reading, singing and playing with her babies. overall she is a wonderful little girl.

You're how far along?

Apparently I don't get very big with my pregnancies... although you would have to convince my legs, back, and expanding sides of that. just this week 4 different people on 4 different occasions have expressed their surprise that I am due in a week, yes one week. Dallin's pediatrician was concerned about some things she heard while listening to his heart and wanted to set up a follow up appointment in a few week to check it out, so I informed her that I was due in a week and asked if I could do it at one of the new baby appointments, she looked at me in shock and said she didn't think I was more then 6 months along. and then at the grocery store the check out lady had to ask if I was pregnant because she didn't want to offend me if I wasn't, generally at 9 months people don't have to wonder about that anymore. You get the picture.

don't get me wrong, I am grateful that it only takes a bit more effort to bend over and clean the countless messes a three and one and a half year old can make, and that I'm only mostly out of breath lugging these two up and down three flights of stairs multiple times a day, I just hope that after I have this baby, who has not been named, that these people wont still be wondering if I'm 6 months pregnant.

stack-um-up

many people wonder what we are going to do about strollers, car seats and other transportation when the baby comes. This is us at our last hurrah at Busch Gardens before Katelyn turned three. and as you can see our philosophy has become stack-um-up. It has worked with the stroller and miraculously Cameron has found a way to make it work with the car seats in the back of my car... so no van... for the time being.

Labor Fears

I have spent several nights awake thinking about how I could plead my case for being induced with this baby. you see I've been induced with each baby, Katelyn because I was on heparin, a blood thinner (I had to give myself shots in the stomach twice a day for the entire pregnancy plus 6 weeks after... fun times) and Dallin because my labor was so fast with Katelyn... 4 hours from the time they started the Pitocin to when she was born. my labor with Dallin was 3 hours so now that we live 40ish minutes from the hospital I thought I had a good case. so at my appointment on Friday, I had the script planned out, the fast labor and long distance, unfortunately I'm still only dilated to 1.5 cm and so my doctor just reassured me that I would be fine and to just come in as soon as the contractions became at all regular.
as I was driving home replaying our conversation, wondering what went wrong I remembered that I had forgot to mention that Cameron's current rotation is a hour away so I would have to drive myself to the hospital, while in labor and that I had two kids I needed to get down 3 flights of stairs and then drop off at some one's house before I could come into the hospital... perhaps I will have to mention this at my next visit... that is of course if I don't go into labor before then...

so basically it looks like I will have to be like every other woman and wait for my body to decide to go into labor on it's own.

Glasses

Cameron informed me the other day that medical students don't wear shorts, a little surprising coming from a guy who owns more shorts then i do clothes... but medical students do wear glasses. and so do their kids apparently. Katelyn and Dallin thought it was so cool trying on Daddy's glasses.. once they started fighting over who got the wear them and trying to run off with them we decided to pull out some glasses of their own... a smart move.

and in case you were wondering, Cameron doesn't have very bad eyesight but the glasses do help as he sits at stares at the computer screen trying to infiltrate his mind with knowledge that will hopefully help him do well on his tests.

also, if you were dying to ask but too shy, no he hasn't decided what kind of doctor he would like to be yet... he still has a bit over a year before he has to commit to anything.... I'm voting for something that makes enough money to pay off this crazy dept we have acquired and something where we can hang out with him every once in a while... perhaps ophthalmology?

September update

We like our new place, since moving here our kids have forgotten how to walk, they run constantly, if they aren’t running they are dancing, jumping and “falling,” activities which have not gone unnoticed by those who live underneath us. I have tried to keep it under control but it’s impossible to reason with a one and a half year old and slightly less impossible to reason with an excited three year old.





We are getting use to the “neighborhood.” Everyone in our building seems to be nice. We did have a run in with some kids at the playground though, a brother and sister who looked to be ages 3 and 6 decided to pick on us, swearing, calling us names and throwing mulch at our car. Thankfully we have only run into them once and we haven’t had any encounter with their parents. There is a little black girl who lives downstairs who is fascinated by Katelyn, she loves her hair especially. The other day she somehow managed to get a firm grip on her ponytail and while her older brother and I tried to wrestle Katelyn free, he was surprised at how soft her hair was. I’m sure he hasn’t had much contact with white people based on the dynamics of our apartment complex.

I spend my “spare” time trying to finish all the millions of projects started since becoming a mother…. Yeah, that means three years of projects….all to be finished before the baby arrives in two weeks. Currently I am making family home evening lessons, file folder games, and other quite activities for those times when kids are kids and don’t realize that everyone else is sitting quietly. My scrap booking buddy has moved to Texas so that has been put on hold for the time being. In its place I have started blogging. I find myself wondering about some of my parenting choices, like the time I decided to let Katelyn and Dallin use stamps with non-washable ink, or when I try to do any of my various projects while the kids are watching a movie hoping they won’t notice, or the times I have let Dallin run around diaperless after taking a bath... when will I learn?

Cameron has just begun his psychiatry rotation. He has finished OBGYN, ER, and Surgery…which means that so far he has delivered a couple babies, drained a handful of juicy abscesses, and stapled up a lot of incisions this year. What will he be able to add to his list in the next couple months? School takes up most of his day but he still finds time to play with the kids when he is home.





Katelyn turned three last Sunday and is the funniest girl we know. She loves anything remotely related to princesses and refuses to wear anything but dresses. She is getting more imaginative and has very dramatic scenes with her dolls, animals, beads, or anything that she can move around, even our TV connector cord… which unfortunately didn’t survive the experience. She gets very upset when one of her characters is calling for their mommy and I happen to respond. She loves to cook and insists on being involved in any cooking activity happening in the house. Grandma wisely chose a cooking kit as a birthday gift and she gleefully uses it to help mommy in the kitchen.

Dallin is just about the happiest little guy we know. He loves doing anything Katelyn is doing, including dressing up in her new princess clothes and putting on her purple princess high heals… he looks adorable but we should probably invest in some boy dress up clothes so he doesn’t develop a complex. He loves Elmo. He runs around the house saying “Elmo, watch” and in case he thought you didn’t hear him the first time he repeats it over and over getting louder and louder until you say, “Dallin, would you like to watch an Elmo Movie?” at which point he grins up at you with a huge cheeser smile. That’s how he says yes, he hasn’t actually said yes, ever, he just grins. However, he has perfected the word NO. He likes to play hide and seek and he is good, he doesn’t make a peep and he waits patiently until he is discovered which can take a while. So far we haven’t had fear of him hiding anyplace other then the apartment because our door doesn’t stay shut unless it’s locked and there are three flights of stairs that deter him. Last Sunday Dallin went to nursery for the first time. He loved playing with the toys. He was a little bit in shock being around so many other kids who wanted to play with all the toys as well. So far Dallin is the cleaner of the family. Katelyn makes the mess and Dallin cleans it up….ok Dallin loves to make really big messes but he will help clean up unlike certain princesses who think they are too good for cleaning.



As a family we are looking for a van…or three really skinny car seats…Cameron is leaning towards the skinny car seats idea. I am looking for one of those really nice vans with entertainment systems for the kids, automatic door openers and closers, lots of cargo space for strollers, good safety rankings, sound barrier glass, shiatsu massage seats, deodorizing air conditioning, decomposing food under the seats alarm system, conveniently located hand sanitizer dispensers, trash compactor, GPS system…or at least cardinal directions… ok something that has left and right written out, and Katelyn would like it all to be pink. Dallin would like blue but that’s ok because we think that just means a color in general. Unfortunately, due to the lack of pink vans out there, we are probably going to just buy something to cut the sides of the car seats down a bit. We can't afford a van right now so the skinny car seats is looking like the way we will go, or I guess I could just leave one of the children home whenever I want to go out during the day... so many options...