Baby Ben has arrived!

Benjamin George was born March 17, 2009. He weighed 7 lbs. 7oz. and was 20" long with dark hair. As soon as he came out and the happy tears were flowing, Sam and I immediately noticed how much he resembled his big brother, Jack. Below are some of the pictures from the day. More to follow on a day that I don't need a nap desperately:)

The day started with Jack heading to school with his big brother t-shirt on.























Waiting on Sam to park.


















Heading back to surgery























Surgery's over, here comes baby Ben and Sam, (although he didn't have a name at this point).

Memom and Ben.

This is Jack on his way to the hospital to meet Ben. I LOVE this picture. Aunt Neen and Memom are bringing him. (He is sitting in Nicholas' car seat and reading Nicholas' books, trying to wear Nicholas' hat which is too small).

Our first picture as a family of four.

Oh my sweet, sweet boy

I've been so sentimental and emotional about my precious boy. Today I gave Jack a haircut outside. I guess this is my final picture with him as the only child. Tomorrow is the big day. He has been so sweet, taking care of me, making sure my heating pad is turned on (and that no one else sits in my spot on the couch). He comes up and hugs my belly and caresses my face and tells me how much he loves me. I'm so blessed.

Jack's getting a bike - so he needed a helmet!

Sam's mom (Granny) is coming this week to see the new baby brother. She and Grandpa Eugene are bringing his Christmas present (long story), which is a bike. Yesterday after church we went to Target and picked out a Spider Man helmet. He wore it all day, just taking it off to nap. We had two neighbor kids come and play for a bit outside in the afternoon and he wore it while they were there as well.

Chocolate Cake . . . delicious!

Jack enjoying Sam's leftover chocolate birthday cake.

Goofball

Jack loves the baby swing in the living room. It plays music and is a cozy little seat. I walked in the living room the other night and there he was - planted in the swing. I can't believe it didn't break. I figured, 'what's a few more minutes so I can take a picture of this?'. He's so silly.

A look back in time

My mom has been practicing putting pictures into emails for when she is in Illinois and the baby is born. She sent me these two pictures this afternoon and they just killed me how young Jack looks. It's hard to remember these days. I would guess he's about 16-18 months in them.

My little Young Gun

Jack was invited to a birthday party Sunday. It was a cowboy theme and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. Makenzie (shown here) was the big 3-year-old birthday girl. Jack met her at the YMCA. Jack decorated his own cowboy hat, had a burger and chips, got an "outlaw" scarf and sheriff's badge. I'm not sure where he got the idea that he was an outlaw, but instead of being the law, he was an outlaw.


















Enjoying some chow from the chuck wagon

Decorating hats

To earn his sheriff's badge, he had to find his blue star with his name on it.

The fun continued at home

"I'm an outlaw!"

Practice, practice, practice

My neighbor, Amy and her son, Niko, let us borrow a baby doll so that Jack could get used to the idea of having a baby around. We change his diaper, feed him (out of my bra:), burp him, put him down for naps and even take him for walks. We've had "baby Paul" for two days and Jack has really taken to him (his name is Conner, so I don't know where Jack got the name, Paul).

Jack put him in his brother's car seat while we ate lunch.
























Snuggling with baby.

We even wanted baby Paul in the bed for "light" nap.

After light nap, it was time to take him for a walk.

Jack pushed the stoller all the way down the street and back (with Amy accompanying him)

Here is a video of Jack taking care of baby Paul. He's going to be a great big brother.

Poop show. . . I mean, Peep show

Jack has been doing so well pooping on the potty, he's so proud of himself and tells everyone that he sees. I apologize for the brief nudity, but he looked so cute at the sink washing his hands with his slippers on.

He's also very proud of showing off his underwear. He'll just unzip and stick 'em out there for all to see. I don't know where he learned this one.

There must be something about this song

Jack dancing to the Gladiator soundtrack again, same song as before (http://jackthethird.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-can-dance-to-anything.html). The rhythm is gonna get ya, I guess. I found it quite entertaining.

Some stories must be shared

This was too funny to just leave for the "cute things Jack has said" side bar:

I ordered two books from Amazon for Jack about having a new baby and being a big brother. We just got them in the mail yesterday. The best one of the two is a picture book that allows you to just describe what is happening and apply it to your house/life, how you see fit. There is a picture of the mom breastfeeding the baby while the big brother watches and helps. While we looked at the book and read it, Jack really didn't have much to say about any of it. But that didn't mean he wasn't paying attention. When Sam got home in the evening, they went upstairs for Sam to change clothes. Jack saw my bra laying on the bed and said,

"That's mommy's bra. My baby brother is going to eat out of mommy's bra."

CLASSIC!


This is a picture of Florence and Jack one year ago today! How time flies.

Nothing new going on

There's nothing new our way, just some cute pictures to post.


Wearing two hats. Playing like it's completely normal to have on a construction hat and a fireman hat.

















We're posing here. He wanted to run around in his undies. He called us in to see how he was standing.

















Our first night of fort since his improved behavior at school. He was enthralled.
















Here I am!
















He wouldn't look at the camera for me.

Reading with a cold

Jack was reading a color book and with his cold he sounded so cute. He sounds cute reading anyway with his /r/ sounds. I finally figured out how to combine two videos into one.

If all playdates went this well. . .

. . . we'd try to have one everyday. At times, Jack struggles with sharing and being aggressive when playing with others. So when Jack and Niko played at our house a couple of weeks ago (yes I'm very late posting), they played so well together the entire time. Jack was so thrilled to have him over; he was anxious to share, hold hands - just do whatever Niko wanted. Here are the pictures of them playing together.

They were chompin' at the bit to get upstairs and I couldn't get the camera focused. Here they're holding hands on their way up.

Still holding hands

Kids crack me up at how busy they get when they're playing. Niko was so busy playing with toys that are new to him.

Here is Jack after a three-hour-nap. I had to wake him up and he was grumpy and tired the rest of the evening. Again, I need to have more playdates if this is the type of nap we get out of it:)

Video one is an example of how well they were playing together. The second is Jack dancing and freezing.