5 weeks

Damon is 5 weeks old now. I really don't know what has happened to the last 5 weeks--they have just flown by. Damon is still a pretty good baby, when gas isn't causing him issues. All of a sudden he is starting to get big, and chubby. I dont' know exactly how much he weighs, but he was 10 pounds at his last doctor's visit and that was when he was only 2 or 3 weeks old. He is noticeably bigger now--probably at least another pound. We heard him "talk" for the first time yesterday and he is right on the verge of trying to smile. When I talk to him, his face will light up like he is about to smile.

I was telling my little sister that she needed to post more pictures of her new baby on her blog. Well, she then told me the same thing. I didn't realize it had been 3 weeks since I had posted pictures of Damon. So I took some this morning. I'm basically posting everything because I didn't feel like deciding which ones I liked the best. As you can see, he still has all of his hair, and it has gotten longer. It has earned him the nickname "little fuzzy head" or "fuzzball." It would be great if if didn't fall out...here's to hoping.

Would you ever guess that these two are brothers? They look nothing alike. Actually, none of my kids look alike. I liked this picture though. I was just trying to get a picture of Damon when Kelton showed up. He's such a ham sometimes. Can you tell that he knows he's not supposed to be in this picture? (notice that Kelton's front tooth has come back down and everything is looking good with it.)

Here's Natalie playing with Damon. My 5 year old and my 5 week old.

Natalie took this picture. I cropped it in (which is code for, I cropped myself out. :) ) It can be handy to have another photographer around when Nate's not here.

My baby is 5!

My little baby girl turned 5 years old today. I can't believe it. I can't believe how big she is, and I also can't believe that I have a five year old. Crazier yet is that that five year old will start school in just a little over two months. But that is a post for another time...

Natalie was, of course, very excited about her birthday. My sister-in-law had made this cake (but in pink) for her daughter and I knew Natalie would love this princess castle cake. So while I can take credit for actually making this cake, I can't take credit for coming up with the idea for the cake itself. (My sister-in-law is amazing and I'm pretty sure she can make anything in cake form.) And in case you are wondering... yes, this cake took a rediculous amount of time to make. Natalie is funny though because I asked her a few days before making the cake what flavor she was wanting the cake to be. I asked her if she wanted it to be white or chocolate. She knew what I meant, but she answered, "mom, I want it to be blue." Blue is her very favorite color and she wanted to make sure I knew that her cake had to be blue. Like I would have dared make it any other color.

For the very first time, we did a birthday party with friends. We had the party this past Saturday. Here is Natalie with her cake at the park where we had the party. She had eight (plus one more very late comer) friends come to the party. She had so much fun playing games, eating hot dogs, and opening presents from her friends.

Natalie got to open her presents from us this morning, on her actual birthday. We woke her up (she was already awake and just waiting for us) singing happy birthday and then she got her presents. I put this first picture on because I don't think I have ever seen her hair this crazy in the morning.

The next series of pictures have a funny story. Due to the odd shape of the present, I wrapped it in a box. A diaper box to be exact. When Natalie tore off the wrapping paper and saw the box, she started making all kinds of faces. Then she said, "I didn't want this." It took us a little while to convince her that we weren't giving her diapers and to just look inside the box. It was pretty funny.

You can see in this picture that she can't quite figure out what to do or think. She wouldn't even finish unwrapping it.

Now she finally sees that we did not give her diapers and is very excited by her present. (It is a bubble bucket--one of those that is spill proof, so she can blow bubbles without making a mess. Just in case you were wondering. It would be driving me crazy if I didn't know what was actually in the box.)

Here is Natalie's fun present. She got a new bike from all of her grandparents. She had very much outgrown her old one. She loves this one and had fun riding it around the "inch" (aka, block. Don't ask. I have no idea.) Happy birthday Natalie!

Law School Graduation!

After three years of law school, Nate is finally done! He graduated last Saturday from the U of A James E. Rogers College of Law, earning a Juris Doctorate Degree (that just sounds cooler that plain old law degree). It seems like he's been in school forever, yet it seems kind of crazy that he is finished. I am so proud of all of his hard work to get to this point and earn a law degree. We had some family come to celebrate with us--both sets of our parents, my brother Rob, his wife Tina, Bryce, and Nate's brother Tyler and his wife Jen, and his brother Brent, his wife Suzie, and Brianne. It was a lot of fun to have everyone there. So now, Nate gets a week off before he goes back to class all day long to study for the bar, which will be at the end of July. So he's done, but not really. :) Congratulations Nate! I am so proud of you.

What kind of bed do you have?

Lately my kids have been driving me a little crazy at bedtime. Kelton has recently decided that once we put him to bed, he doesn't have to stay there. He will come out into the hall or play with toys. As soon as we get up to get him, he goes running back to his bed, only to stay there until we sit back down. Now he has decided that he wants to sleep in Natalie's room in the bottom of her bunk bed. So we let him, but tell him if he gets up that we are going to make him go back to his own bed. Which is always what ends up happening. So tonight we put him to bed in Natalie's room with her. I gave them both lots of warnings about just going to sleep and not talking and playing. A few minutes later, Kelton is in the hallway, peeking out at us. So I got up and took him to his own room. A few more minutes go by and I realize that he has snuck back out of bed and gone back into Natalie's room. I can hear them talking and playing and making each other laugh. I was about to go get him when Natalie comes running out.

"Mom, Kelton is back in my punk bed!"

Me: "What kind of bed do you have?"

Natalie: "A punk bed."

Why yes, Natalie. Yes, you do.

I then sent my two little punks back to their own respective beds.

Damon's story and more pictures

So here are the basics of Damon's birth story. At 38 weeks, I was at 4 cm and 80% and the doctor stripped the membranes and basically told me that I would have a baby in the next few days. (Kelton arrived all on his own at 38 weeks--2 weeks early--so I was kind of expecting the same thing this time.) After waiting very impatiently, I still had no baby at 39 weeks and one day. I had an appointment that day and asked my doctor if she could just send me over to the hospital to be induced. She said yes, and I headed over to the hospital. When they checked me at the hospital, I was at 5 cm and still not in labor. Crazy. So, they got the pitocin started at 1:00 pm and Damon was born at 7:43 pm. Everything went well and pretty much exactly like all of my other deliveries. Except for one thing. For the first time ever, I had the epidural not work perfectly. Before I have felt absolutely nothing. This time it was pretty much like that until the last 45 minutes or so, as Damon's head came down and it was time to push. That's when, for some reason, the epidural decided to pretty much stop working on my right side. (I'm sure it was still doing something, but it didn't really feel like it.) I could feel a lot of pain in the front and the back. For the first time ever I think I truly appreciated the fact that I only have to push a couple of times to deliver the baby.

Damon is two weeks old today. I took him to the doctor and he now weighs 9 lbs. He is the sweetest, most good natured baby (which I really needed because my sweet, good natured 2 year old is sometimes very much...well...not). He never cries, except for when I don't start feeding him fast enough. When he is awake, he just looks around and takes everything in. He does well at night too. If I time his last feeding right, he only wakes up twice to eat and sleeps the rest of the time. Damon is just the cutest little thing and we all love having him around. Here are a few more pictures.

These are a few of my favorite pictures of Natalie and Kelton with Damon. I say this all the time to Nate, but I just can't believe I have 3 kids. It seems like so much more than just 2.

I took these pictures today, so this is currently what Damon looks like. He is such a cute, handsome little boy--even in his pink swing.

More pictures of Damon

Here are a few more pictures of Damon ranging from the 21st at the hospital (shortly before coming home) until today. He is so cute and sweet, though he's having some trouble sleeping at night. So, when I get a little more sleep, I will write about his birth story. Natalie and Kelton both really love him and aren't jealous at all. Natalie loves to hold him, and Kelton will occasionally demand "I want to hold it!"

Our baby is here!

Damon Burgess Webb

April 20, 2010

8 lbs 7 oz

20 inches

More story to come later...here's just a few pictures. We have yet to really see him with his eyes open. Damon is very sweet and so cute with all of his dark hair! We can't wait to bring him home to meet his brother and sister. They haven't been able to see him yet because kids aren't allowed in the hospital--due to flu season.

It was bound to happen sometime

Going...

Going...

Gone!

I've never had this happen before. Natalie fell out of her crib a few times before we moved her to a bed. But all of a sudden, Kelton is getting out of his crib with it being a 100% controlled movement. Watching him do it, I was amazed, and slightly annoyed. So climbing out became a fun game that was keeping him awake...so out came the toddler bed. We've actually been meaning to get this out for a few weeks now, but just hadn't done it on account of needing to clean the room and move a bunch of stuff around. I guess Kelton got tired of waiting around for us to get with it.

And of course...the very first night we put him in his bed...

We went in a short while later because Natalie had left her blanket in his room. Yeah, he had found a bottle of Mod Podge (if you don't know what that is, it's the craft version of Elmer's glue. Yes, glue.) and had opened it and gotten it all over the carpet. There were two separate round spots, each with about a 5 inch diameter plus other little random spots and dribbles. I had no idea what to do. I've successfully cleaned a lot of stuff out of our very light carpet: baby food, throw up, bathroom messes, crayon, blood, red Kool Aid, etc... but GLUE? How do you get glue out of carpet? I figured a lot of water was the best way. So I took a wet rag to it over and over and over again until I thought I got it all. In the morning, the hard, crunchy spots told me that I just didn't quite get it out. Oh, well. I tried.



On another note, today is my Grandpa's 91st birthday! My Grandma will turn 90 later on this year. I am SO lucky to still have both of them here--together! Happy birthday Grandpa!



And for randomness sake: Natalie helped her daddy make cookies between sessions of Conference. I just thought it was cute. She's just getting too big.

Car wrecks, car seats, and Easter eggs

Yesterday Nate was stopped at a crosswalk--one with a light--when he got rear-ended by a guy who apparently wasn't paying attention. I guess this guy didn't see that Nate was stopped at a red light. He tried to stop but couldn't in time. He tried to swerve to miss our car, but didn't quite make it. You can see in the picture below that he got the bumper. The piece of the bumper was hanging off but Nate ended up ripping it off so it wouldn't catch air and take flight while driving on the freeway. Fortunately, the guy who hit Nate claimed responsibility (because of course it was 100% his fault, but you never know with people) and we have an appointment to get the car fixed on Monday and Nate will get to drive around a rental for a while.
Last Monday we talked with the kids about Easter. Natalie of course remembered the eggs and the candy. We wanted to make sure she really knew why Easter was important, so we talked about the Resurrection. She even explained the story to us. Then we explained the tie in with the Easter eggs and how they should remind us of Jesus. So with that understanding, we had the kids do their Easter egg hunt this morning. I don't really need to tell you that they had a lot of fun.

After collecting all of their candy, we came inside to watch General Conference. Look at what good little kids I have. They sat like this the whole time! Yeah right. But they did sit like this of their own free will and stayed that way for probably 15 minutes. Natalie lasted a little longer than that. I just had to take a picture because I thought it was really cute.

Today we (meaning Nate) rearranged the car seats in the Durango. We are running out of Saturdays for him to do this before the baby comes, so today turned out to be the day. We previously had the back row seat folded down and Natalie and Kelton we in the first row seat. Since we can't fit three carseats side by side, Natalie and Kelton got bumped to the back row seat. I took this picture to show their seats way in the back. They are going to seem so far away now!

I wanted to put this picture on because Kelton saw me taking pictures and was trying his best to get in on one. But you can also see the base for the baby's car seat is now in the first row. The seat that Kelton is climbing up on folds down so Natalie and Kelton will be able to crawl in to get to their seats--and me too to buckle them in. I'm already trying to picture the fun I will have buckling three kids into their seats every time I go anywhere. But hey, the car is all ready to go now.