My dad

This is a picture of my dad going to the first day of his last year of work. I'm proud of my dad. I love him.

Everybody's Growing

We've got so much to share about how things are going in our world, but not much time to get it posted. In the meantime, we've got some stats from July 28th and some pictures from August 8th. Hope you enjoy them! Sorry they're already outdated. John's likely up to 15lbs as or today the way he's eating.

Amelia 38 mos
39"
34lb

Thomas 20 mos
34"
22lb 11oz

John 2 mos
24.5"
12lb 6oz

Click for more pictures

Today I Cried

This morning was Amelia's first day at the weeklong summer camp at the preschool she'll be attending. It took us 15 min. to walk to school from our house with the boys in the stroller. It was a pleasant walk, and the excitement was definitely in the air. The camp was called "Hawaiian Holiday" and runs 9am-1pm M-F this week only. In about 6 more weeks, Amelia will start going to preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, so this camp will help her get used to things and people at the school. She was so proud to be going, but she admitted just as we left the house that she doesn't know how to read yet. When I left her there on the playground with the other kids and the teachers, it hit me. This was a really fast 3 years. The day we brought her home from the hospital wasn't THAT long ago. We'll blink and she'll be sitting there with a graduation cap on.

Back at the house, our day was filled with changing diapers, feeding boys, changing more diapers, feeding the boys again, playing, more feeding and diapers, then it was time to go get the big sister again. It was much more quiet around here than usual. Faith (our mother's helper/former K student turned teenager!) was here for a few hours to help with the boys while I got things ready for the Kids Exchange consignment sale.

When I went to pick up Amelia, she said she had a good time at school. When asked if she made any new friends, she said, "No. I didn't talk to anyone. I was quiet." My guess is that this behavior will not last too long. At least she was listening. She relayed what the teachers said about not touching anyone else's food at lunchtime. Her favorite thing was that there were two blue swimming pools, and she's looking forward to going back. And...she did take a nap when she got home!!!

A Birthday Getaway

After spending most of the past 6+ weeks inside our house, we decided to make reservations at the new Great Wolf Lodge near Charlotte for Leslie's 39th birthday. It was a fun time for all. The big kids loooooved the indoor water park. It was so very exciting to them! John slept in the stroller and was wheeled around from pool to pool. We enjoyed seeing the smiles and excitement of our older two waterbabies. We played most of the day Fri & Sat and took a break to visit Ikea for lunch with our friend Stephanie. More pics will be added later :)

Happy Independence Day!

We're knee-deep in dependents here, but we're all excited to celebrate the independence of our country. We'll use the term "celebrate" loosely. We may put water in the baby pool or something crazy like that!

The Rest of the Story

So, while we were oogling over new baby John in the hospital room - the same room we oogled over one of the other kids (can't remember which one), Mom was at the house playing Legos, reading, playing with dolls, etc. Cousin Allison was also there for 2 shifts per day. Grandma and Papa led everyone up to visit the new baby in the hospital the very afternoon he was born. Uncle Caleb and Uncle Chelle made their way from Raleigh as well for some quick baby kisses.

The next morning, Michael called home to check on things and found that Mom had tripped over the baby gate in the hallway in the dark the night before and landed on her already bad knees. She was unable to walk, but had managed to get both kids out of bed and fed, somehow. He raced over to take her to the ER (at UNC, just the next building over) for the day while Patty and Allison stayed with Amelia and Thomas. Mom left the hospital with a cane, in a wheelchair, with some x-rays of the damage, a prescription, and an order to see her dr. in FL asap. I'm guessing she was the only patient in the ER who also got to leave the building with a new grandson in tow! We're hoping her knee heals up quickly so she can come back to play with us!

We spent Tuesday getting unpacked, nursing, changing Mom's return flight, figuring out how to clone Michael since he was the only one who could walk AND follow verbal directions. It was quite interesting to say the least, but we made it through the day.

John's first visit to the pediatrician was Wednesday, and he seems to be following the patterns set for by his sister and brother. He's dropped 9% of his body weight, despite round-the-clock nursing - like for 4 hours straight several times a day. As much as it pains me to have to nurse, then supplement, pump, take meds, etc. it looks like that's the road we're headed down again. It's a good thing we have experience and can get rolling with it all without too much trouble, other than a bit disappointment.


John's all swaddled up right now resting while everyone else is returning from the library with some new books. Not to be gross, but here are some of the conversation around our house:

Who has beep?" Thomas grabs his rear and runs for the changing table saying, "Me!" We've noticed a recent explosion of receptive and expressive language from the boy. He's just the so pleasant, even when he squeals...

and then there's Amelia out of the blue, who claimed tonight, "Baby John Kelley farted on my hand sideways. That's how I know he loves me." Both of the big kids are very much in awe of their cute new sibling, trying gently pat his hair or give him their favorite toys. I hope it stays so sweet in the years to come.

A Freak Event, Not To Be Repeated...

All THREE of our kids are asleep at the same time during the day!!! I was really hoping to catch a few zzz's myself while Michael is out picking up some groceries, but I realized we haven't even had a chance to share about Baby John's birth!

During the first week of June, my main goal was to sit tight until Mom came to take care of the big kids. Friday finally arrived after much "airplane" pretending by A, T and Grandma Kelley. Judy (aka Grand-ma-MA) arrived at noon, then we watched Amelia eat loaf after loaf of bread at Outback while Thomas lifted fry after fry from Michael's plate. Contractions started that evening, just as we'd hoped, but after a hot bath, things slowed back down for a good night's rest. Same thing happened all day Saturday, but another bath and a good night's rest pushed us right up to the day before his due date (6/8). Both of the other kids were born the day before their due dates, so we had high hopes for Sunday.

With all the activity at our house, we decided on Sunday morning (6/7) to visit Labor and Delivery @ UNC for some peace and quiet and to get a baseline on the frequent, but not regular contractions. We recognized Eeva, our nurse from Thomas' delivery, and asked if we could get her again if we stayed. She agreed. They actually wrote on the board we were there for "peace and quiet," so all the nurses and physicians got a kick out of that. After some monitoring, they decided to admit me, although the decision wasn't totally a clear one. A couple hours of hanging out won me an epidural and some pitocin, followed by some nubain for itchiness. The attending OB, Dr. Mauro came around to introduce himself. We were enjoying getting to know him, thinking we'd be having a new baby later in the evening. We realized we had Amelia in 2006 in room 06, Thomas in 2007 in room 05, and this baby in 2009 in room 07, but we felt like our family was small compared to the 7 kids Dr. Mauro and his wife have. Mid-conversation, my water broke (2:16 pm), and 20 minutes later (not a peaceful 20 min!) our baby boy was born. He was healthy and big - a whopping 9 lb 1.9 oz and 22.5 inches long. Our 6 "maybe" names were written on the wall, so we polled all the healthcare workers, and Michael finally chose one of the 3 names no one voted for - John Allen. John because we like it, and Allen for Papa Kelley.


I was pretty much ecstatic to see a vigorous, healthy baby emerge as that meant the eventual return of all those things I'd missed SO much - bending, standing, walking, breathing, sleeping, etc. Part of my joy in the pictures is that my time of gestation is hopefully complete. We'll miss Dr. Boggess, though, who has been a part of our life since late 2005 when she became our OB. She's seen us for a LOT of visits these first 4 years of our marriage!

Ok, both of the boys woke up hungry, so I must continue "the rest of the story" later...