Kane Dominic

Welcome to the world:

KANE DOMINIC EVERSON

We are so blessed with the arrival of our new baby boy. Kane is born on Friday August 12th 2011, at 2.38pm. He weighs 7 pounds 13 ounces (3500 grams) and is 20 inches (51cm) tall.

I was already pretty uncomfortable in the last few weeks of this pregnancy. Compared to the first pregnancy, it was a lot different and harder on my body: with a busy toddler running around and a baby who had lowered down already quite a bit, discomfort had set in early. With one visit to the hospital at 37 weeks because of chest pain and contractions (luckily nothing was wrong and I was able to go home after 2 hours at the monitor), oma being with us since the end of July to help out and with only 4 days until due date, we thought it was time to get this little fellow into the world.

With daddy's busy work schedule, we practically scheduled the delivery on a Friday and our little boy was okay with that as he didn't decide to come earlier.

As with Quinn, the delivery went pretty smooth and also quick (lucky me). We were at the hospital at 7am, started the pitocin at 8am and Kane was born at 2.38pm after only 4 pushes. Quinn had paved the way pretty good for him.

We knew we were having a boy, but that didn't take away any of the excitement once he came out and we finally saw him. One pound heavier at birth and a little longer, but a photocopy of his sister.

Quinn came to visit later that day with oma and opa. She was very excited to meet her little brother who she calls 'baby'.

A kiss for mama and a kiss for daddy.

It must have been strange for her not having me around at the house for the first time, but she did great with oma and opa. Leaving the hospital without me was hard on her (and even more on me), but it was only for two nights.

Kane was doing great. He was down to 7 pounds 5 ounces on Sunday, but that was still within his limits. So around 10am we left the hospital and went home. It was my Birthday that day as well. Being at home with my two wonderful kids, my loving husband and my dearest parents was the best birthday present I could have asked for!

Quinn is 18 months old

One and a half years old today! Counting down to 2 years.....I can't believe our little girl is this big already. A true toddler. Very sweet and funny, but also with a powerful mind of her own. No is no and yes is yes. Not much you can do to change her mind.....

Quinn's 18-months old stats:

weight: 20 lbs 2 oz / 9100 grams

height: 32,5 inches / 82,5 cm

She's still on the lowest line weight wise, but with her length she's at 75%! Wonder who she got that from??? Dad's all excited about it: he can't wait to see his little girl be a pro in basketball!

18-months old facts:

* we're truely down to one nap a day, normally from about noon to 3pm. Bedtime is between 7 and 7.30pm and she sleeps for about 11 to 12 hours. Safe to say we don't have any complaints about her sleeping habits thus far.
* Words are being added to her vocabulary regularly and she amazes me often of all the things she understands already. The most funny thing is when she is imitating a bunny, which I only had to show her once. Now every time she sees a bunny in a book or on tv, she makes the "bunny face".
* She loves books and actually starts to sit down with me and listens when I read her the story.
* She is full of LOVE and loves to give kisses all the time. Hopefully this love giving continues once the new baby arrives :-)

Quinn's new room

We've been working on it quite a while and finally ready enough for Quinn to move into her new room and her big girl bed. That was a week and a half ago now, July 8th. With the baby at that time only about 5 to 6 weeks away, it was really time to make this move, because we wanted her to be completely adjusted into her new room/bed when the baby is here.
I have been nervous about this step. And also a bit sad, because it's another step away from "babyhood" for my first baby.
I was surprised how well she did for her first nap. I heard her talking for a about half an hour and had to go back in once because she dropped one of her stuffed animals (I heard something drop and then a 'uh oh'......, so I figured that was the problem) but she fell asleep fine and no crying. She slept for about 1,5 hours, which isn't too long, but not bad for a first time in a new bed.

Sleeping........

In the evening, it was a little bit different. We had her night stand standing next to her bed, and she was playing with the drawer the whole time. Open and shut, open and shut. So I went back in there and turned it 90 degrees so she wouldn't be able to reach for the drawer anymore. Well, my mistake. I wasn't gone for 60 seconds and bam........she fell out of bed (when trying to reach for the drawer). So that was it, the night stand was moved to the other side of the room. It will be back where it "belongs" when she's a little bit older. After that, I laid in bed with her for a while and when she started to snooze of, I left. She fell asleep and slept till 6.30 the next morning. (I went in to check on her every time I got up to go to the bathroom, which is quite often these days.....) And when I came in her room to get her out, she was sitting on her bed waiting.

Now, one and a half week later, she's still sleeping very good in her new room and she never really tried to go into her "old" bedroom. We've kept that door closed the first few days, but now she goes in there once in a while when I'm getting it ready for the baby. We've moved some furniture around in there too, so it looks different from when it was her room. 

I'm such a proud mom! I expected a lot more resistance and crying. As the matter of fact, I was mentally prepared for about 2 weeks of non-sleep and sleeping with her in her bed. The second day, her nap lasted 3 hours (!!!) already and in the evening she fell asleep after about 30 minutes of babbling. She still likes to play around a little (play with the window blinds which she can reach at the end of her bed), but up until now, she never came out of bed herself. She patiently waits for one of us to come in when she's up.
That's my girl!

4th of July weekend

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

We went up north for the weekend of the 4th and it was actually the first weekend we have been up there that the weather was beautiful. Yeah!!!!! How lucky were we.
So, with all this sun, we spent most of the time at or in the water. Quinn's swimclasses have been paying of. She is not afraid to get in the water, even though it's a lot colder than the pool water at swim class.

Grandma and grandpa got a new innertube for the (grand)kids.......we went around the lake a few times on it. Quinn was good at wearing her life jacket even though those infant one's don't look very comfortable. Also on the boat she didn't try to take it off, which is a good thing of course.
Tubing doesn't excite her as much yet as daddy would like it to be, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time. Next year will probably be a different story already. 

Floating in the water. It looks like she's out there all by herself, but just so you know, Ryan was very close to her......

Playing with water and sand, what more does a kid need?
With her sunhat, shirt, botttoms and thick layer of sunblock I had her all covered up to protect her pearly white skin from the rays.

Sunday morning we went to the Lakewood Zoo, which is only 10 minutes away from the cottage. It's a small zoo, with not a lot of "natural" areas for the animals, but the Zoo is fairly new. I'm sure (or I hope) they will continue to improve the setup they have over the next years.  

Feeding the goats some corn.

Checking out the potbelly pig....

....and the baby cubs. They look so cute. Why the double fencing???

There was more corn on the outside of the fence than on the inside, so Quinn decided to throw some back in there for the ducks.

We had a wonderful weekend at the cottage. We got the weather we hoped for and plenty of outdoor fun time at the water. We're going to try to squeeze in at least one more weekend like this before baby #2 arrives.

Quinn is 17 months old!

Happy 17-month Birthday little peanut!

Well, little????? Not so little anymore I would say. Our girl is getting so big and smart.
Our days have been looking different lately. This came along with the disappearance of her morning nap about 1,5 to 2 weeks ago. Quinn normally gets up anywhere between 6.30 and 8 am. I try to stay ahead of her and be ready by the time she wakes up, which I manage to do most of the time (except when she is really awake and ready to get out at 6.30am....). Then normally between 11 and 11.30 am we start lunch and after that it's naptime around noon. On good days (most of the time) she sleeps about 3 to 3.5 hours, but sometimes only 2 hours. I love her long naps, because it allows me to get housework done, do some dinner preparations and still have some me-time, which is mainly laying down for a while. Coming to the end of pregnancy and not sleeping very good at night, a daytime nap really can do wonders :-)
Mornings can be long sometimes, especially when she's up early and we don't have anywhere to go. But in general, she's doing really good on this 1 nap a day routine. I'm surprised how quickly she changed over.

Here are a few things that interest her at 17 months:
* animals: she loves going to the Zoo to check out the animals and feed the girafs.
* books: she gets them out several times a day. She has her favorites, which she picks first, but most of the time every single one gets opened up.....
* closing things: we have to be quick, because she closes the door of the fridge, garbage or dishwasher before we get a change to put anything in it.
* music: it's amazing how she remembers songs from music class or tunes she hears on tv or from her toys. Every day before naptime I turn on the 'dancing with Teddy' song from music class and she automatically goes get her teddy bear and dances with him. It's adorable to see and I know I have to try to get this on video, but anytime she sees the video, her attention goes to the videocamera and teddy gets thrown on the floor.....

I just finished a video of her first year (finally) and I realize that we haven't been filming much in her second year at all yet. I'm going to try to get the camera out more again, because there are so many fun moments of her that we should capture. But as I just mentioned, once the camera is in view, she stops doing what she's doing...... 

33 weeks pregnant.....

After 33 weeks......it's about time for a belly picture.

I haven't been taking regular pictures of my belly as when I was pregnant with Quinn. I feel bad, this baby is already being deprived....It's just so much different though being pregnant while having another little toddler already walking around. Time just flies by. And so does this pregnancy in a way. And when I think of all the things left to do before baby can actually come.....Are we going to make this in (max!) 7 more weeks??????......Most importantly: getting Quinn out of the crib and into her new bed and bedroom! We are planning to start with this after 4th of July weekend. Hopefully we will have her room ready by then and the transition goes smooth.

The pregnancy itself is luckily going pretty smooth so far. Besides the regular aches and pains that come along with the third trimester, I cannot complaint too much I guess. I feel more backpain than with Quinn, but that probably has something to do with me picking up and holding Quinn a lot.
I'm a little bit nervous of how Quinn is going to react when the baby is finally here and how I am going to do dividing my attention between her and the little one and how I'm going to organize the day with two kids. I'm sure it will all work out (it will have to), but that has been on my mind a lot lately.
Those who really know me, I'm a big fan of structure and routines. I might have to deal with a little less structure for a while......Luckily my parents will be here in those first few weeks to help out again, especially since it's the most busy time of the year at work for Ryan.
Anyway, lets not jump ahead too far and first concentrate on the things to be done before the baby is here: Quinn's room, baby room and basement bedroom. That will be the new "bedroom" for my parents, since the guestroom is Quinn's room now. After that, we're ready for baby Everson #2!!

Happy Father's Day!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO THE MOST WONDERFUL AND SWEET DADDY IN THE WORLD!
We were up north on Father's Day, so Quinn brought her present for daddy to the cottage.

Helping daddy read his card......

.....and opening his present.
With all the tools Ryan has in the garage, we were surprised he doesn't have a little hand shovel and other hand tools. When he was planting the tomato plants a few weeks ago, he actually needed to "borrow" Quinn's plastic tools to dig a hole for the plants, but that didn't work of course. So Quinn and I decided that would be the perfect father's day gift for this year!

 

Unfortunately the weather wasn't very Summer-like, it rained all day long. So we headed home early and spend the rest of the day together at home. We had pizza for supper and Zesty's frozen custard for dessert (yummie). After Quinn was sleeping, we watched a movie and we both even made it to the end of the movie. So despite the weather, what a wonderful day after all!