Behold!

My kids teach me many things, but the lessons that make me cry are the best ones. In February we (the kids and I) took a little trip to Utah. We got a screaming deal on tickets and D was working horrendous hours--it was a great time to be gone. I made the mistake of snapping some photos on the plane--because I ended up leaving my camera there. I didn't realize until the next day, and although I called the Southwest office in Salt Lake incessantly, nobody picked up. I tried again the next day. Somebody finally answered, and I gave her the description of the camera and the flight number and time, and she said, "After 24 hours, any lost and found items are sent to corporate in Texas." Ugh!

I called the Texas office and gave a detailed description, saying that the camera wasn't worth a whole lot. Just a crappy digital point and shoot camera in a breastmilk storage bag with a few batteries. All I wanted back was the memory card.

I was in agony because before the trip, I stupidly neglected to download the photos. Aside from a few Halloween photos, I hadn't downloaded anything for over five months--autumn, Christmas, playing in the snow, Pip's birthday--it was all gone. I was really broken up about it. I told the kids and we started praying that somehow we would get our camera back. We mentioned it in every prayer.

Nothing turned up for the 10 days I was gone, and I called Southwest corporate again when we returned to Michigan. They said sometimes it could take up to a few weeks. Well, the weeks went by, and we kept praying, but still no news of our camera. I was really starting to lose hope. The kids still mentioned it in prayers, especially Pip. A month passed, and then two. Our camera was gone, and with it all those precious photos. I mourned their loss and the fact that I could never visually review those memories.

Then one day, I found a box on the front porch. I wasn't expecting a package--what could it be? Suddenly I saw "Southwest Airlines" tape on it. I burst into tears and thought, "Really? Could it be?" I tore open the box and behold! The black Similac bag with our camera inside, and inside that, the memory card that held a record of our lives the past half year. Oh, how I wept for joy! And then I realized that, although I had lost hope of ever getting our camera back, my kids had not. Pip had mentioned the camera in every prayer. It had never even occurred to him that we might not find it. When I told them through my tears that our camera was found, they just looked at me as if to say, "Well, of course it was. We prayed about it, didn't we?" Behold, the faith of a child!

Happy Birthday to Pip!

Goldilocks turned one! We have enjoyed his presence in our family so much over the past year and couldn't imagine life without him.

I made a banana cake with whipped cream and bananas on top for our boy, just like I did for Squeak. I think I'll do the same for all of our babies when they turn one. My little monkeys sure love bananas! He just couldn't keep his hands away when he saw what it was!
We celebrated Pip's birthday (over three months ago) by going to the Grand Canyon for New Years Eve. We originally thought we'd pack the kids down and back up. Ha ha ha, so funny! Fortunately, it snowed over a foot the week before our trip, so that option was out (too slippery), and we decided to instead walk the rim and enjoy the view. Good choice!

I'm wearing my hood not because it was so cold, but because Pip kept pulling my hair. Funny Pip!

Someone did the creative piggy man and I just had to take a photo

The snowy rim. It was quite lovely.

Below is one of the last photos we took with our camera. It was on the bus going back to the car after two days of hiking the rim. Squeak loved the bus! But we had a little tragedy as I tried to pass the camera to D and in the exchange, it dropped and broke.

We were really glad it wasn't one of our kids that got dropped, and also that the camera dropped at the end of our trip. And I was secretly glad for the excuse to get a new camera.

Family shot with the parents looking good and the kids not really looking

Bright sun!

Squeak enjoyed the snow for her first time and made this mini "hombre de nieve" with her Dada

Hooah, look at my strong husband packing around 60+ pounds of kids and gear!

Our munchkins loved being outside and they loved hanging out in the backpacks.

Little Pip: What's not to love??
There are so many things we enjoy about our boy. Here are just a few:

His goldilocks
His gappy grin and giggles
His "affectionate growl"--he growls with delight at things he loves, like his sister, his Mama, his Dada, breastfeeding, dogs, horses, birds, airplanes...
His speedy crawl and the pitter-patter it makes across the carpet
His clapping sign, which means either "mas" (comida) or "si" depending on what we ask him
The way he holds his arms up and says, "arriba" (actually sounds like, "ri") to be picked up
How thrilled his is about knocking over a tower of blocks
The way he worships the vacuum cleaner
How awesome he is at giving hugs (he growls as he hugs too)
His healthy appetite
How much he loves balls--he throws them and crawls after them, just like my sweet Bruno
The way he loves babies (actually dolls--he picked this up from Squeak)
That he loves going for runs with his Mama and Squeak--I'm so blessed to have two kids who are content in the Baby Jogger so I can get my run in almost every day.
How ticklish he is
How he kneels on the floor to play (with his little feet tucked behind his bum). Love the toes!

What can I say? He is our favorite son!

My Favorite Little People

Squeak has become quite maternal with her job as big sis!


The jury's still out about those eyes...


And that baby tub--Squeak thinks it's so fun to take a bath in it because it belongs to Pip.


Wrestling in the crib--it's the funnest part of bedtime!


Squeak was never in love with the Exersaucer as a baby--she got bored within a few minutes. But now she puts herself in it. I love how she's trying to spoon feed Pip from the Exersaucer.


Every day we thank the Lord for our fun, happy kids. They are such a delight! I'm grateful for the things I'm able to learn from them. Hopefully I can teach them a little something too.

The No-Document Baby

Pip has started doing this funny tongue thing--he sticks his little tongue out all the time. It really cracks me up!

Pip rolled over onto this little basket and got it stuck on his big head. At first he was really frustrated, but when he noticed us laughing at his plight, he, too, decided it was funny.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE DOOR STOPPER!! It happened at about 12:30 one night. D was not amused (he was trying to go to sleep), but I was.

Fun times with feet!

I'm on hold right now with the Social Security office again. I'm working on getting some documentation for my baby. My (almost) eight-month-old baby. Because right now I have no documentation that this baby exists. No joke. I have no birth certificate, no social security number, no passport. Not even a blessing certificate. (We recently got our Church records transferred, and Pip was not included in our family.) I have spent many frustrating hours on this issue. I haven't yet filed 2007 taxes because I don't have an SSN for Pip. How did this come about?

I felt awesome after Pip was born and would've been thrilled to leave the hospital that very day, but they wouldn't discharge Pip (hospital policy requires that all newborns stay for 48 hours). By a stroke of luck, the next day was New Years and because of the holiday (and short-staffing, I imagine), they let us go after 24 hours, yippee! A few of the procedural things fell through the cracks though...like Pip's weight at the time of discharge (who cares??) and the form for the birth certificate (again, who cares, since we didn't have his name picked out anyway).

So two weeks later when we were sure about his name, I called the hospital birth recorder and asked for the form, which she sent, we filled out, and returned. A few weeks later I received a sample copy of what Pip's birth certificate would look like. Oops, it had a mistake on it! Apparently, no woman has ever kept her maiden name after she got married--well, the fact that I kept my maiden name is apparently too difficult for the forms or the county or the people typing in the info to handle, because my name on the form came out like this: First Middle Maiden Maiden Last. I IMMEDIATELY called to rectify the situation; supposedly it was corrected, and I waited to hear back, and nothing. I called again, explained, supposedly corrected the situation, waited, and nothing. And again. And again. Etc. And here I am again. I've spoken with the hospital birth recorder, vital records, and social security probably two dozen times. Wow, the incompetence astounds me!

But, hey, this post isn't about incompetence anyway. It's about the No-Document Baby. I just can't believe that he doesn't exist. I mean, I get to see his sweet smiles and hear his giggles every day. I get to watch him splash in the tub and laugh at his big sister. I get to listen to him coo and watch him bat his eyes at me. Who could ever believe that he doesn't exist?

Pip has Emerged!

D, T, and little Pip

Pip wearing the cute hospital hat

Pip

Here we are with Ellen, our awesome midwife

We had a New Years Eve birthday party when Pip joined our world. We are so excited to be parents of a Squeak and a Pipsqueak! I'll put more photos up later, but here are the details:

Birthday: December 31, 2007
Birth time: 6:45 a.m.
Weight: 7 lb. 9 oz.
Length: 20.5 inches
Head circumference: 14 inches (thank D for that)
Labor time: only 25 hours!!
(we are thrilled that it was less than half of my 59.5 hour labor with Squeak)


We did an exciting thing two days before Pip's EDD and switched to a different care provider. When Pip's amniotic sac ruptured on Thursday morning and I didn't go into labor, I called the midwife on call from my clinic and found out that only a doctor from the clinic would be on call the whole weekend. I had met this doctor previously and didn't feel comfortable with his ideas on birth, so I called another midwife in the area, Ellen Franklin (who attends births at the same hospital)--I had been told excellent things about Ellen from one of my HypnoBirthing students--well, I asked Ellen if she'd take me as a patient and she said yes! She is very hands-off as long as birth is proceeding normally, and she has so much confidence in a woman's body to birth naturally with no intervention. So I felt true relief, and I think Pip felt safe enough to come to us. I think the sac must've ruptured and then resealed because actual labor didn't start until Sunday morning (Pip's EDD), and the sac ruptured again as Pip was emerging. Anyway, birth was a thrilling experience, and switching to Ellen was key to Pip's fabulous birth journey. So was HypnoBirthing and having D as the best birth companion ever! We are so grateful for our experience.