Our Woodland Halloween

I have a slight obsession with woodland animal themed anything.  This is the theme in the nursery that the girls used and now Caleb.  Since Anna is still in an animal phase, I gave her a few choices and she chose to be a deer.  Haven used an old owl costume of Anna's and Caleb was a fox.  I think I said this last year, but this really may be my last year to get away with having a costume theme.

 

 Halloween started off with a "Storybook Parade" at the girls' school.  Which means they walked through the halls and got candy. 

 

Haven with her buddy Emi as Fancy Nancy.

 Aunt Karri invited us over for a fun dinner of mummy hotdogs, ghost bananas, a veggie skeleton and witches brew juice.  Anna helped me make some bones for dessert with pretzels, marshmallows and white chocolate.

 My little woodland creatures.

 All the costumed cousins.

 

 

We met up with daddy who threw on some antlers and went trick or treating around our neighborhood.  We always enjoy having a chance to get out and talk to our neighbors.  Sadly, not as many had their lights on this year but thankfully the girls are young enough to be happy after going to just a few houses.  We had to keep an eye on Haven because she was trying to sneak candy along the way and eat it with the wrappers on!

Flower Mound Pumpkin Village

 

In the beginning of October we went to the sweetest pumpkin patch and had such a fun time as our first big outing as a family of 5.

 

They had cutouts from every cartoon movie ever made and the girls wanted their picture taken with each one.

 

2 Months!

Another month of having a little baby in our house has passed by.  I don't take these days, weeks and months for granted.  He has come out of his newborn sleepy phase and is getting stronger and more alert everyday.  

Stats

24 inches ~ 94%

15 lbs ~ 87%

41 cm ~ 93%

 He is a flirt and has started smiling and cooing like crazy.  Seems like more than the girls but my memory could be fuzzy.

 Not a big fan of tummy time or being held in the beco!  He will have to learn to like it. :)

 

 Sleeping 7-8 hours a night and he sometimes takes a paci.

 The newness of him being in the house has not worn off and if he is in the room, he is still the center of attention.

  I love being forced to sit down and hold him to nurse.  If he falls asleep on me, I stay there until I absolutely have to get up!

1 Month!

 

He may be my third, but I am determined to do monthly posts like I did for his sisters!  This little guy has been with our family for over a month now!  Little did I know how incomplete our family was without a baby BOY.  He has been like most normal newborns sleeping most of the time and eating and pooping a lot (seems to me more than the girls did).  After he turned about a week old he started getting fussy after feedings and was showing signs of reflux.  I read some scientific studies about using probiotics to help and I really think it made a difference.  The reflux obviously wasn't affecting his growth because these were his 1 month stats:

13.2 pounds ~ 95%

23.5 inches ~ 90%

38.7 cm ~ 50%

 

 Some of my favorite Caleb pictures:

Note the dimpled chin in this one.  The most common comment people make when they see him is about his chin that he gets from his daddy.

 

 

 One of my favorite outfits (thanks Marci!) that I am so sad he has almost already outgrown!

 

 It looks like he is roaring while wearing this Lion onesie which is another one of my favorites.

 

 I'm so thankful for this swing which has faithfully rocked and calmed all three of my babies.

  He has had a few firsts this month, including his first bath.  He didn't like the first one, but has liked all his baths since then.

 

 

 I also caught him sucking his thumb for the first time.  I think it might have been a fluke, but I would love another thumb sucker like Anna.  He is already a pretty good sleeper without it and by week four,  was consistently giving me 5 hour stretches at night. 

 

  First photo shoot with cousin Thomas.  These two are less than 6 months apart and will be best buddies one day.  My sister and I separately found these onesies on clearance at Old Navy.  We have the same similar cheap taste. Ha!

 

  This is more of a first for me...the first time I loaded up all three of the kids to go somewhere.  Is this really my life now?  I'm one of those SUV driving moms with a car full of kids!  And I'm dreaming of getting a minivan!   

 

 Another life with all three shot.  Caleb is definitely the center of all our attention and is basically only alone when he is sleeping in the pack-in-play. 

 

He prefers to be held and most of the time, we don't mind!  Daddy with his mini-me, one of Caleb's nicknames is Baby Brad.

 

  This is how Caleb and I spent much of his first month...nursing and hanging out on the couch.  I also spent much of the first month looking as tired as I do in this picture.

 We did get off the couch and got cleaned up to go to our friend Mindy's wedding.  Daddy was out of town, so Caleb was my handsome date.

 

 These girls truly "love" on their little brother ALL the time and it hasn't really lessened since the day he came home.  As I was going through all of the precious pictures of them with him, I decided the siblings deserve a separate post.

Caleb's First Few Days

 I love the first days/weeks after a new baby is born.  There is so much excitement and love from family and friends as everyone comes to meet the new little one.  I also appreciate being in a hospital and having at least one night with just Brad and the new baby.  Being in that setting again brought back a flood of memories of when the girls were born.  I don't take for granted that I have been able to do this not once or twice, but three times.  Tears are streaming down my face as I write this.  I am eternally grateful and have treasured these things in my heart.

 Here he is just minutes old and in the classic blue and pink hat and baby feet blanket.

 

 Daddy doing skin to skin kangaroo care. (love that Harris Methodist encourages dads to do this!)

 

 Not even a day old and he gave his first hook 'em and no it was not posed!

 

 When Caleb was born his blood sugar was a little low, so they had to prick him every hour to measure it.  He just barely failed the test a couple times and they were threatening to take him to the NICU if he failed again, so the first 8 hours were a little stressful.  When the girls came to meet him, I was having to keep him really calm and still so he wouldn't use too much energy and drop his blood sugar levels.  

It was still a very special moment when they got to see him for the first time.  Anna had almost the same reaction she had when Haven was born - she was very cautious and just took everything in almost in awe.  She kept her hands up by her face a lot of the time and just looked at him and me.  She had such a sweet, sensitive demeanor and talked in a soft voice to us.

 Little Haven's reaction was just as I expected - she was very excited to see him and ran right over.  She had a big smile and immediately wanted to touch him.

 

 Our first picture as a family of five.

 

 Our siblings' families stopped by and we got to show Caleb off to them.

 

 

 

 

My college roommate, Cara, happened to be in town from New York for work and was able to visit.  Although she didn't get to stay long, it was so special for me to get to share that time with her.

 Our sweet friend Lauren.

 After 36 hours in the hospital, we were packed up and ready to go.  Here he is in his going home outfit.

 

 Proud daddy.

 Adoring mama.

 This may very well be my last ride down the halls of a hospital in a wheelchair with a new baby in my arms, so I was a little emotional.

 

 Somehow we didn't get pics of the grandparents at the hospital, but it wasn't long before they came to see Caleb again.  Gigi has a picture like this with all her grandchildren.

 Appy and Grandy with their 2nd grandson out of 10 grandchildren!

Our faithful friends Mindy and Ashley also came to meet Caleb shortly after we came home.