Elaine's holy baptism

On July 13th, Elaine got baptized at our church, St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Iowa City. It was a simple, yet meaningful ceremony. We opted to have a private baptism after the 10am mass. We felt that it would be more comfortable and less stressful than to have it during mass, especially with no one to keep watch over Peter and Natalie. Before the ceremony started, this is how Peter and Natalie spent their time waiting:

When it did start, it was difficult to concentrate on the moment and to keep Peter and Natalie from running all around the church and the altar. Here is one rare moment they did manage to stay around the baptismal fountain:

More importantly, we finally did manage to get a picture of Elaine's big moment, her baptism. Elaine was so great the whole morning; she slept through the entire mass and baptismal ceremony. She barely opened her eyes when Father Mike poured the holy water over her head. It must have felt good to her!

And our family picture with Father Michael Phillips after the ceremony even turned out quite nice!
(Despite the fact I wish I stood sideways to slim my 'rotund' figure!)

Afterwards, we picked up some special lunch items from the Bread Garden and we had a lemon-raspberry cake from DeLuxe Bakery all ready to celebrate Elaine's baptism at home. The cake was so pretty and delicious - enjoyed by all, except Elaine, of course.

We all thanked Elaine for being born and getting baptized as we ate our piece of cake!

A wonderful day

What started as a not so great day turned out to be a great day. Elaine and I had gone to the hospital to get her blood drawn for her thyroid check. She had the unfortunate luck to get a big guy who didn't do as gentle as a job than I've seen done before for blood draws. :(

I continued onto the grocery store, where Elaine decided to start crying in Aisle 2. I spent the remaining 50 minutes holding her in one arm while pulling the cart with the other. Thank GOODNESS Sam offered to watch Peter and Natalie at home (while I had said I would attempt to shop with all three)!

The day started to turn up when I got the call from Elaine's endocrinology doctor. Turns out Elaine's thyroid levels are good and she was taken off her thyroid medication! YAY! Next week we have to go in for another blood draw (darn sure I'm not going back to big guy vampire). If Elaine's levels remain good, it looks like she'll be done with this hyperthyroid deal! YAY YAY!

Next, I got a delivery of BEAUTIFUL flowers from "Dan, Beth and the kidlets". THANK YOU GUYS! The arrangement was enormous and wonderful! They have my favorite favorite flower - asiatic lily. They smell SO GOOD! Love them!

Right behind that delivery (literally, FedEx lady was walking up behind florist delivery), I got my Old Navy/Gap order of post-partum/summer clothes. I was so excited to get those flowers AND clothes that weren't maternity and fit me nicely! Sad to know, I've been wearing the same two pairs of goucho pants for months. Now, you know my sad secret.

Finally, Elaine's baby swing order came into the store! After Elaine's diagnosis of hyperthyroidism, I was overwhelmed with guilt that I bought all these cute baby girl stuff for her, including this butterfly baby papasan swing. I'm not even sure if she'll love it or not, but I was willing to get it to try! I have to say, she looks totally cute in it!

And Peter was VERY interested in it too!

Right now, all three kids are sound asleep, allowing me to update this blog of mine.

Like I said, it's been a wonderful day!

Let us not forget Uncle Jim's visit!

June 12-16th - Father's Day weekend:

Amidst last month's flooding, Uncle Jim (Sam's brother) paid us a visit. It probably was not the easiest time to travel to Iowa since the flooding closed several bridges and roads between Iowa City and Quad Cities airport. Jim's travel time into Iowa took 6 extra hours due to airplane mechanical problems, tornado warnings in the Quad Cities, and closed flooded bridges/roads on I-80. I just hope it was all worth it for Jim!

Peter and Natalie loved having him here,

horsing around the yard...

eating Airliner pizza together...

telling Knock Knock jokes...

(Transcript to Natalie's one-woman joke:

"Knock Knock...Who's there... Boo... Boo who...don't cry it's just a joke...ha ha ha ha")

watching Burer brothers be Burer brothers...

giving Uncle Jim lots of love...

...but were sad to see him go.

Three-week old Elaine update

It's been an interesting and fun adjustment period for us all. It's still work in progress (I would imagine it'll be a lifelong adjustment) but we're doing great. Elaine is sleeping more at night. Her "typical" night would be to fall asleep around 10-11pm, wake around 2-3am for feeding, then again around 7am. I can't say that this is every night, but it's been a repeating pattern that I think I could live with! She's more alert during the days, looking around at her surroundings, especially Peter and Natalie:

Her nap schedule during the days is a little unknown to me. She doesn't nap well other than in my arms or on my chest. That's why I'll be reading my "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" book again. Until she's 6 weeks or so, I can't help but spoil her by holding her all the time.

Here is a rare daytime moment of Elaine sleeping like an angel...

...apparently, having a nice dream (or a warm diaper feeling).

Being more alert, Elaine opened her eyes enough for me to snap a picture of them:

Not sure if you can see it, but she does have Sam's blue eyes!

Read all about it!!

Stop the press!

On July 12th, 2008

Peter ate two sticks of carrots and all his peas in one sitting without us asking!!!!

He does eat vegetables!

Surprise Iowa City Fire Department tour

Last weekend, we decided to go out for a family outing to the Iowa City Farmers Market downtown. As we walked to the market, we passed the Iowa City Fire Department. To all our surprise and excitement, a very nice firefighter invited us (well, really Peter and Natalie) to look at their fire and rescue rigs. It was soooooo cool, even for this 33-yr old mom. I was excited for the kids to see the fire department upclose and personal and it was pretty cool for Sam and myself as we never got to see anything like that before!

Peter even got a lift to sit in the drivers seat. Can you tell by his face that he was excited?!

Natalie got her turn in the truck, too!

With so many buttons inside the fire truck, I'm so relieved the kids didn't push something they shouldn't - like the siren! The firefighter offered for us adults to get a turn at the wheel. It was VERY tempting and would have been exciting, but we passed. It definitely would have been another one of my exciting experiences in big rigs like my first ride in a combine 5 years ago. I was so excited to ride that combine that harvested the corn fields near our house; I told everyone at work about my thrilling experience. They just laughed - apparently, people in Iowa ride combines as early as they ride their trikes!

Anyway...

The nice firefighter gave the kids stickers and Junior Firefighter hats before we left. Natalie was so happy to wear it - she kept it on all the way through the farmers market.

We hope this the beginning of many cool experiences for the kids to learn about things like the fire department and what they do. We showed our appreciation that morning by dropping off a dozen of cookies from the farmers market for our fellow firefighters!

Two weeks and over 150 diapers later

Thanks to all of you who've sent their well wishes for baby Elaine!

It's been a rough two weeks, but I feel the six of us (including Sydney) remain survivors.

Elaine continues to do well. As some of you may know, she had the unfortunate luck to get some of my hyperthyroidism antibodies in her bloodstream. She's been on medication to lower her thyroid levels. Fortunately, it's temporary and she's already showing signs of outgrowing it as her dose has been lowered as of today. Otherwise, she's gaining weight and eating very well. Her nights and days are still a little switched, but hopefully that will correct itself soon!

Peter and Natalie are being great older siblings. They just loves to give baby Elaine hugs and kisses all the time. It is apparent that Peter is a "pro" when it comes to being a big brother whereas Natalie is exploring her new world of being a younger and an older sister. Ah...Welcome to the world of the middle child, Natalie! I hope you take it well!

Sam has been a huge help, sacrificing a lot of time from his work to stay home and help out in every way possible. I'm afraid that time to get into the normal routine is nearing or upon us. I haven't yet gotten a grasp of how I'm going to handle three kids at home on my own. Worse off, how will I be able to get them all out of the house on my own. At times like these, I often think back and rest assured that my mom, too, was a mother of three. So far, all 3 of us turned out fine and my mom still has her hair! I, too, will survive. (*channeling in some Gloria Gaynor*). If all fails, I take comfort in also watching Jon & Kate Plus 8 and thank God that I have only 3 not 8 mouths to feed!

I leave this entry with Elaine's first video appearance - shortly after birth.

This is how she started...we'll see how she'll grow!