Surviving the 1st week home

Well, we have been home just over a week, and we are surviving. The phrase "You don't have to be crazy but it helps" runs through my mind frequently though! Nick was off from work last week, but returned to his normal schedule today. Luckily, normal means he is home by 5:30 everyday!

Daddy with his girls

Adeline continues to change and grow right before our eyes. She is really starting to get chubby cheeks and a double chin. She still has those chicken legs though! Tomorrow we go for a check up, so we'll see how much weight she has gained. At the beginning of last week, we weren't getting much sleep. Actually, she was getting sleep, but we weren't. She is a content, easy baby so far, but really likes to be cuddled at night. She'll happily sleep all day in her bassinet, but until Saturday, she wanted nothing to do with it at night time. The last two nights have been better, and I am starting to feel human again.

Both kids love to hold Adeline

We've made a few outings uneventfully too! Thursday we went to pick up some essentials at Target, and she was so good that we stayed out to have lunch at Panera Bread too. Saturday we received more snow than we have the rest of the winter combined, so we laid low until Sunday when it warmed up enough for us to go out to church. Today, I even ventured out myself with both girls to Walmart to pick up some birthday supplies for Sophie who turns two tomorrow!

Sophie helped with Addie's first sponge bath

Now for the crazy part. Last week we showed our house three times! For those of you who have never had your house on the market, this means that you live very, very clean. Then you get a call that someone wants to see your house. Sometimes they call the night before, but twice we've had just an hours notice. At this point, we all run around like crazy, cleaning even more. Then all 5 of us, plus our 100 pound dog hop into the car and drive around for an hour. It's great fun...... Luckily, Nick and I have the home staging thing down to a science. The hardest part is keeping the kids busy, and not letting them make more messes while we clean. This is especially tricky for Sophie who always wants to help. She has zero interest in the tv, so we try to give her a chore to keep her busy. Hopefully, someone will want to make an offer soon!

Sophie has learned a few tricks this past week too. When she wants to see the baby, she goes into the bathroom and gets the stool so she can look into the bassinet. She also now fetches the stool to help me put clothes into the washer. The trick that isn't so great is that she has learned to open doors. Now, all of those clean and protected rooms are no longer Sophie proof. She loves to go into Ben's room since it's a virtual treasure trove of toys. Now, nothing is safe.... Help me!

If one 'pretty' is good, then 6 must be better!

As crazy as our week has been, we are so blessed to have Adeline as part of our family. Nick and I are so thankful for our three beautiful and healthy children. I haven't been the greatest about taking pictures this week, but I promise more to come soon!

Sweet Adeline

Our first day home has been uneventful. We have pretty much just been cuddling on the couch with the kids and the new baby. Sophie is absolutely fascinated by the new baby. She wants to hold her and touch her all of the time, and every time she leaves the room she says "Bye baby". Sophie gets a little upset when we don't let her hold the baby by herself. I have to say that it will be a while before we trust her, since her track record with her baby dolls is not so good. We had a long night, but I hope that it will get better soon.

Nick and the kids are at church, Adeline is napping, and I am supposed to be resting. Of course that means I've showered, picked up the kids toys, started the dishwasher and some laundry, and now am on the computer. I wanted to post a few more pictures of our sweet little one (and big ones too). I promise more to come!

Here is a thrilled big brother, holding his new baby sister. Benny has been so wonderful and patient over the last few days. He does everything asked of him, and has been so sweet with his newest baby sister. However, his patience with Sophie has not increased, and who could blame him since her mission seems to be to terrorize him! (We can't count how many Lego creations have been destroyed!)

Sophie loves to hold Baby Addie. So far, she hasn't been jealous-just a bit curious. She wants to be right there in the middle of the action all of the time. She fetches burp cloths, sleepers and blankets for the baby. I guess she thinks we need to change her clothes more often. Yesterday, I was explaining to Sophie that I had to feed the baby. She ran off into our bedroom and came back with a pacifier for Adeline. I think she was trying to help!

Finally, here is Baby Adeline in her huge car seat before we left the hospital. The outfit I bought for her to wear home was way to big, so we had to settle on this one. She still looked cute though!

I promise to post more pictures as soon as possible!

A Pirate or an Alien?

Here at the Cook House, we are anxiously awaiting our newest little one. I am predicting that it will be any day now, but who knows! We had a very busy week last week, full of doctors appointments. Baby Cook has dropped significantly, and earlier in the week, my midwife was concerned. I had been measuring right where I should be (36 weeks, 37 weeks), and then I dropped back to 32 weeks. I was sent for a myriad of tests including two ultrasounds, two non-stress tests, and an extra appointment with my midwife. All is well with the baby, she is just on the small side (about 6 pounds), and is sitting very, very low. She could come at anytime!

On Wednesday I had two appointments, and Nick and I had to juggle the kids around. Sophie went to the YMCA for the day to make things easier for us. Ben went to Church group with me, and then Nick picked him up from Church and took him to work on post. Ben was thrilled to go to Daddy's office for a few hours. I went to my ultrasound appointment, and then we all met up to take Ben to school and get a quick lunch. Ben was so excited about being at Daddy's work and having a quick Happy Meal in the car that he couldn't stop talking about it when he arrived at school. His teacher decided to sit down with him and record the mornings events. Just to preface, Baby Cook is still to be named. Ben is convinced she should be named Elizabeth, which is both my and Sophie's middle name. We are afraid we have used that one too much (sorry Mom). We'll let you know her name when we finally decide! Also, the picture from my ultrasound, was not very good. It is a front on picture of the baby's face, and Nick can't even figure out where her eyes and nose are. This is Ben's take on the mornings events...

We were in the car having my McDonald's meal. My Mom and Dad were eating some of my french fries. Then my Mom showed my Dad the picture from my Mom's doctors appointment. I'm naming her Elizabeth, that's my new sister that's in my Mom's stomach still. Her eyes looked like one had on a pirate patch and then the head looks like a skeleton head. She looked like a t-shirt a little, like there was sleeves in the picture, like long sleeves. That was her body. I saw no feet in that picture. I was like 'this is an alien baby'! The first time my Mom had the pictures taken, the baby looked like she was an alien. It creeped me out!

I sincerely hope that our sweet baby girl will look nothing like a pirate, or an alien for that matter. Hopefully, we will find out very soon!

Our Next Move!

It's been a little while between posts. That virus the kids had finally caught up to me, and then Nick had his Lasix surgery last Friday. It was a rough weekend, but we are all on the mend now, and finally have some news to share!

Nick was accepted into the OCLL (Office of the Congressional Legislative Liaison) Fellowship program! It will be a three year assignment in the Washington DC area. We are more than thrilled! We have lots of friends in the area that we are anxious to catch up with, and we can't wait to experience all of the cultural attractions.

This year, the fellowship program has changed in that now it will include a Masters program as well. Nick will be attending The George Washington University, and over 18 months will earn his Masters in Legislative Affairs. This was a huge surprise to us! The original program did not include the opportunity to earn a masters. The other big surprise is that he has to report in late June! We were planning on arriving in August. Needless to say, we have swung into full gear here, and even met with our realtor today. We were planning on putting our house on the market next month, sometime after the baby arrives. Now, we have been forced to move our timeline up 6 weeks.

Nick will start classes just after the 4th of July. In September, he will begin orientation on Capitol Hill for the OCLL program. In January 2010, Nick will start a one year term as a Congressional Aide. Basically, he will be a military advisor to a Congressman (let's hope he gets a good one!). All the while, he will be taking his Masters classes. The following two years will likely be spent working at the Pentagon, although we are not exactly sure.

We are very excited about our upcoming life changes. Most people focus on either having a baby or moving, but we've decided to take both head on at the same time! The biggest thing weighing on our minds is selling our house in this terrible market, but our realtor seemed optimistic. Keep your fingers crossed!

A little fresh air!

Yesterday was the second day home sick from school for Ben. We were all getting a little stir-crazy to put it mildly. I hadn't stepped outside since last Friday when I picked Ben up from school, and I had to get some fresh air. Luckily, we were blessed with a warm February day for Kansas, 62 degrees! Yesterday was also the first day that I would say Sophie was finally 100%. She was back to her old trouble causing, funny self (i.e. she found lipstick under the bathroom sink!).

We took the opportunity to get outside and play on the swing set for the first time this year! Both kids had a ball, Sophie especially loved climbing up the ladder to the slide, and trying everything that big brother could do.

Having a first go on the big kid swings!

And finally, Sophie tried her hand on the trapeze bar. She would hang and hang, and then looked kind of panicked like she wanted to get down, but was afraid to let go. What you can't tell very well from the picture is that she was about 18 inches off the ground!

When we had had our fill on the swing set, we took a short walk up the street. By the time we came home, Benny and I were both more than ready to head inside. Poor Sophie wanted to stay out and play some more, but I really needed some rest. It's official, we have Spring Fever!

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

After I blogged yesterday, Sophie woke from her nap in a much better mood! She had a few snacks and even a little dinner. We gave her some Gatorade, which in her words was "Mmmm Mmmmm". She still didn't seem 100%, but definitely on the mend. She even wanted to help Benny and I make giant chocolate chip cookies (Benny's favorite), but I didn't think she should be near our food just yet. We had lots of tears over the matter and finally we let her watch. Nick had to eventually finish up the cookies because Sophie was fading fast, and only wanted her Mommy.

However, Benny awoke several times in the night, calling for Nick. His eyes hurt and he wanted a cold washcloth. When Benny gets sick, it always seems to start in his eyes for some reason. He is rather dramatic about it, and always demands to have the lights dimmed and for his face to be covered with a damp washcloth. On the second call for help, Nick realized that Ben had a fever. This is not a good thing since Ben downright refuses to take Tylenol. It's been two years or longer since we have been successful in getting him to swallow some. We had prior luck with "Magic" Ice Cream or pudding in which we disguised the Tylenol inside. Benny is too smart for that trick now, and inspected everything we brought to him this morning as if we were Russian spys trying to poison him.

Nick made a deal with him that if his fever didn't go down some by the time Nick returned from Church, that Ben would have to take the Tylenol. Sure enough, when Nick came home Ben's fever had spiked to 104.7. That was taken in his ear, and I think was probably falsely high, but still, too high to ignore. I am happy to report that we were able to get him to swallow, three Tylenol Meltaways, followed by a giant chocolate chip cookie. Few, one battle down! He is now resting more comfortably in our bed, watching nothing other of course but Star Wars.

Oh, and Sophie seems to be about 90% or better today. She is almost back to her normal self! (Maybe I should have let her help me with the cookies last night!)

A Good Read

Sophie has been very much into reading books lately. We read a select few over and over, all day long. A particular favorite is A Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. I think she loves this book because of all the pictures of food! She really enjoys picture books of animals, and books that have different textures to touch. She loves the books that we sing to her too, like Wheels on the Bus and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly.

Nick took this photo of her just before her nap on Sunday. She wore that sweet yellow dress to church with tights and church shoes, but had to exchange her nice shoes for her ruby red slippers when we came home.

We are enjoying this photo so much right now, because it was the last image of Sophie looking healthy. We have been battling a horrible GI virus or possibly Rota virus this week. It has taken a really long time for her to recover. Just when we think she is going to snap out of it, she takes two steps backward. We have been reading lots and lots of books and snuggling in the recliner all week long. Slowly, she is starting to seem herself again. She needs to make a recovery soon, because we have a busy week of doctor's appointments next week. I turn 36 weeks soon, and Daddy should be having lasik surgery on Friday. ( I say should because the Army could still deny his surgery since Nick's vision is sooo bad. The Dr. has to give the final ok on Monday). We are crossing our fingers that the baby won't arrive too early because Nick will be unable to drive for a few days. Yikes!