Family of Five

I figured it was time to update again with some more photos.  This will be another picture intense post (which I don’t think most of you will mind).  Also, I hope to add some videos, mostly of Penny because she is at a really fun age (when she is not making me want to throw something).

Just a little info about him actually being born, the labor and delivery were fast and about as easy as one could hope for.  They started the pitocin at about 12:15 and he was born at 4:04.  According to my nurse, I started pushing at 3:59, so things went pretty fast.  Also, Jon did garb up in sterile gowns and catch the baby.  That was pretty neat, even if it meant that a very shell-shocked med student had to take his place as coach and hold my leg.  After catching the baby, Jon of course took him over to the newborn bassinet and examined him, even if the pediatricians on duty still had to do it officially.

I have a little video of when my mom brought the kids by later that night to meet him for the first time.  It is pretty classic.

I especially love how Penny is much more interested in Jon’s crackers than she was in the baby.  That is no longer the case, she loves Ian.

Now, onto the picture parade:

Jon distracting the older kids, I have been so grateful to have Jon around as we transition from 2 to 3 kids.  I am also glad my mom is going to be around when he goes back to work.  At some point, I am going to have to take care of all 3 by myself, but I am in no hurry.

I had to put a picture of this AMAZING blanket that my sister Courtney knitted.  Yes, knitted by hand.  She hand-stitched the binding on.  It is beautiful and soft and just such a treasure.  I can’t even imagine how many hours went into this.  Also, Ian looks beautiful in blue.

And my beautiful mom.  I think she looks great, I hope she is OK with this picture.  Thanks again for coming, we all miss you.

Ian’s first bath at home:

Penny really wanted to help.  It led to lots of water on the floor.

And a video of Ian after his bath.  I haven’t taken many videos of the little guy, since he doesn’t do much, but I thought some of you might want to hear his little coos and see his little expressions.

And a few pictures of the little guy in what has to be my favorite little outfit of his so far.  Seriously, I am considering buying it in every size.

Oh, and I have to say how much I love this little newborn napper feature on our Pack n Play.  He sleeps awesome in it.  Speaking of sleeping, is it just me, or does this carseat make his head look massive?  It could just be that the rest of him looks so tiny.

Spending some quality time with daddy.  It makes me so happy that Jon has gotten more time to bond with Ian during the newborn phase.  They get along really well.

Oh, and we definitely still have two other kids who are also extremely adorable and silly.

I am not sure why we had ski goggles lying around, but Penny found them.  Ben didn’t want to be left out of the silliness either.

Nevermind (plus lots of pictures)

For those of you curious about the baby’s name, see the previous post, we updated it.

Still at the hospital

I am so glad my mom was here.  She hates having her picture taken and never thinks she looks good, but I needed it documented she was here, since we would not have survived the weekend without her.

Hooray for siblings.

Oh, and Jon was there too.

Last hospital picture and. . .

Ready to go home with a very exuberant Ben and Penny.

And now, a whole bunch of pictures courtesy of my mom with a bit of real news at the end.

So the baby is still here and he still weighed 8 lbs 4 oz and was 20.5 inches long and was born on June 1st at 16:04, but his name is no longer Dimitri Porter Willes.  He is now Ian Dimitri Willes.  Those of you who promised us money for this outcome, we accept check, cash, or money order.  Or Jon’s paypal is jonwilles@yahoo.com if you prefer.

If you don’t like this name, the bidding starts at $10,000 to change it again, so keep it to yourself unless you've got the dough.

New baby

Dimitri Porter Willes

Fyodor Mark Willes

Javier Bardem Willes

Talmage Hinckley Willes

Farts McGee Willes

Fox Mulder Willes

Tebow Richard Willes

8lbs 4 oz, happy and healthy.  A future Quarterback if I ever saw one.

Happy Valentine’s Day

It is probably a little bit ridiculous for  me to finally post on Valentine’s Day, which is a very silly holiday, when I skipped Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Penny’s Birthday.  Regardless, last night I was trying to take some pictures of Ben to make a little personalized valentine for him to take to preschool and I thought I would share the results.  It started out pretty uneventful:

Ben insisted on having his hair spiked, even though it is getting a bit long for that.  Also, he is wearing his new favorite shirt.  I am pretty pleased because I made it, and it turned out well.  Plus, he loves it, which is sort of the point.  He loves things with hoods on them, so I found a pattern and made this out of a couple of my old shirts and a small amount of a cute fire truck knit I got on sale at Joann’s.  I did a freezer paper stencil for the fire truck.  It’s already starting to peel a bit because I had to do too many layers of paint to get the red to look good on the black and Ben wears it every time I wash it, so it’s already been through the was several times.  Oh, and I am not sure why the fire truck is shooting out fire, but Ben thought it was cool.

Anyway, he is holding out his fist because we were going to do a valentine where I printed off his picture and then stuck a lollipop through the photo where his hand was. I got the idea here at makeit-loveit and it is super cute.   Then it was snowing and nasty yesterday, so I decided against having to go pick up photo prints.  At least I got motivated to take some pictures of Ben.

As you can see, he was not looking at the camera.  It turns out that I made an error in judgment.  I put a movie on to keep Penny  distracted  during the photoshoot.  Instead Ben was distracted by it and wouldn’t look at the camera and:

Penny jumped in the shot anyway.  On the plus side, at least she was looking at the camera.  So, I abandoned the Ben shot and embraced the moment.

Ben still wouldn’t look at the camera, but Penny sure likes to ham it up for the camera.  Her hair is so silly because I had just taken out her ponytails.

As with most cute, huggy, affectionate moments with these two, it played out a little like this.

Oh, big hugs. We love each other.

Seriously, could we be any cuter?

Uh oh, Penny’s getting bored with this. . .

And decides to make things more interesting.

And now we are wrestling affectionately (I think)

And Penny of course has the upper hand.  Either because she is just that aggressive or because we taught Ben too well to be nice to his sister.

Regardless, it is a pretty quick transition from laughing, giggling, affectionate horsing around, to hitting, biting, or trying to strangle. Sadly, I am not kidding:

At least Penny is still looking at the camera and trying to smile.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Our Little Builder

So it is so fun to watch Ben develop his imagination more and more.  He does some really fun things these days.  He is very curious and never stops talking.  He has also officially entered the “why” phase.  Which means of course that he asks ‘why’ about 1,000 times a day.  It was cute at first, but quickly has become wearing.  On the plus side, I try to use this opportunity to teach the little guy some things.  Previously, he lost interest really quickly when I try to teach him things.  Now, when he asks about something I try to give him as real of answers as I can.  I have made a resolution to try and give him accurate answers for his questions.  I have a strong feeling that this will lead to me either having to research a lot of things I didn’t previously know, or giving up and making things up like any good parent does.

In related news, Ben has become quite the little builder.  He loves Legos, and he has lots of little sets to build things (mostly cars and trucks, he has kind of a one-track mind).  However, those toys only really come down off the shelf when Penny is asleep so Ben has rediscovered his bristle blocks that my sister gave the kids for Christmas last year.  They are great because they are big enough to not worry about Penny eating them, but offer enough variety for him to explore and really build.  Today he built an awesome set of machines.  I had to give him a chance to show them off, so here is a video of him explaining all about them.  Excuse the messy basement.  I am pregnant and cleaning is very low on my priority list.

Ben showing off his awesome machines that he built.