Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Going Digital

Look. Look. Look.
LOOK!!!


One of Saoirse's first "real" smiles, and I captured it quite by accident, or simply sheer luck, on film. Well not exactly on film, but close enough. And I only had to take about 34 photos of her in the bathtub (again) to get this ONE, but that's the beauty of going digital, right?

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Bath Time

Bath time is so much fun when you are a little one, especially when you get to splash around on the kitchen counter while your parents tell you over and over and over and over again just how cute you are.


Don't let the tongue fool you folks, this little girl LOVES bath time.


Thursday, June 25, 2009

Sneaking a Peek

The twins have been very interested in their little sister since we brought her home. Nuala loves to talk about her and will shush you with one finger over her mouth when she thinks the baby is sleeping, or will tell you when she hears the baby.

"Baby cry. Baby cry. Baby cry", she'll say over and over again, as if there was any chance you didn't already hear the crying yourself. Here they are sneaking a peek....





Almost

We almost accomplished getting our family photo taken.
ALMOST.



Finn, Sidhe and Ruari left this morning for a vacation out east and so we decided that a quick photo shoot in the back yard was in order, unfortunately we forgot to factor in the need for a photographer which of course is why we still couldn't get a shot of all 10 of us together!





Heat Wave

The heat wave is finally here and so we have been coming up with creative ways to stay cool, although I suppose water and wading pools aren't really that creative.

Earlier this week I took 6 kids to the pool all by myself and it actually went very well. Saoirse slept the entire time we were there, the older kids were absolutely perfect and the twins, well, I did have to devote all of my energy chasing them around the shallow end, but since everyone else was so agreeable this was not a problem (and was actually a ton of fun). 
Yet even though I have passed the first test with flying colors, there are some days when it is too much to even think about loading everyone up for a day at the water park and so on these days the driveway will simply have to do!










Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Jungle Gods

We keep talking about it (and trust me so do our neighbors) but so far this year we have actually done very little about it, and so for now we still have a gigantic thorny mess in the front yard.
Garden of the Jungle Gods......



Nuala really doesn't find much humor in any of it.



Oscar on the other hand has no problem digging in.


Thursday, June 18, 2009

Down By The River

These pictures are actually from June 8th, 2009.
Brendan took off of work all last week (and is only working half days this week) and so we took a lot of field trips with Saoirse and the twins while the big kids finished up at school. Nuala and Oscar loved our hikes down by the river. Saoirse was pretty much happy to go wherever the Baby Bjorn took her.







Busted again: Socks with sandals.....poor kids!!!!

Summer Time

Summer time is upon us. Yesterday was the first official day of summer vacation and we decided to take our first dip! The kids were great, Nuala and Oscar were speechless, Micah was officially tall enough to ride the tube slides by himself (just barely, but a nearby life guard gave him the all clear) and baby Saoirse slept the entire time we were there. 
What more could I ask for? 












Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Dust


Dust. Dust. Dust.
There is dust everywhere.
There is dust under my couch. There is dust on the mantle. There is dust on the picture frames and dust on the lamp shades and dust on the computer and even just some nice free floating dust dancing around the living room. I can see it peeking out at me from the corners of our home, in the streams of sunlight coming in through the windows and sometimes I can even see it when I close my eyes. 
Dust.
There is dust everywhere and I am trying really hard to not let it bother me.
Because let's face it, I don't have much of a choice at this point. 
There is simply too much to be grateful for.
To be joyous over.
To smile about.
I am not going to let a little dust rain on this parade.
No sir. Not me.

(but.....if someone could please send for the maid, it wouldn't hurt)

I have been trying to write out our birth story for nearly 2 weeks now, and today is still not the day for it. We've reached the LAST day of school here and I am working on chocolate chip zucchini bread for our teachers, which would seem easy enough, except that we have about one hundred teachers to thank and so our oven is working overtime. 
I have so much to catch up on though, so many stories and glimpses to share from our first two weeks together as a family of ten, but I just don't have the time yet. 

I will say this: One baby is sooooo much easier than two babies. I am absolutely amazed by how much easier these first few days have been with Saoirse than the early days we spent with newborn twins. However, even one baby is still a lot of work, demanding in a physical way that I somehow managed to forget about. She is an incredible night sleeper, ever since my last post she has been averaging 6-7 straight hours at night, and I almost worry that maybe I should be waking her up! I mean, I know better, but still......SEVEN HOURS?!? 

Of course the trade off is that then she needs to power nurse her way through the afternoon and evening hours and I mean POWER nurse. Last night I nursed her for what felt like 4 straight hours, but it was worth it in the long run when she slept from 11-5am. 
Totally worth it.

I think today we're going to work on a family picture, but for now check out my little Calvin Klein models:





I even tried to get them in a few shots together, just ask any twin toddler mom how easy this is, or just see for yourselves....





Money saving tip #33
Instead of spending way too much on summer PJ's, invest in thin cotton onesies. The Carter's pajamas I was looking at were $15/2 pack. These onesies were $9/5 pack. Not on my best math game right now, but the savings were upwards of $60 for 10 pairs of PJ's. Am I even making sense?

Friday, June 12, 2009

Six Hours

Last night little miss Saoirse slept from 1-7am!!!!
I am totally speechless.
Granted for about 4 hours prior to this she was wide awake and fussing and cluster feeding as if it might be her last meal ever......and honestly, by the end of that 4 hour stint I was rather unamused by it all and getting rather tired myself, BUT the 6 hour stretch of sleep was more than worth it! And for the record, it took the twins weeks, heck even MONTHS to give us such a generous chunk of uninterrupted slumber.
Seriously, MONTHS.
And here's little Saoirse, only one week old, making it feel sooooo easy.
I cannot believe how lucky we are.




Thursday, June 11, 2009

A Closer Look



Nuala and Oscar have been very curious about Saoirse ever since she came home.
I have actually been quite impressed with how well they are adjusting to having a little sister around. Nuala is especially smitten with the baby and is constantly asking about her, talking about her and trying to get a closer look at her every chance she gets. 












Sunday, June 7, 2009

Freedom

Saoirse Odéimin Ojibirish
Thursday June 4th, 2009
10:22pm
8lbs 15oz
21 3/4 inches



Saoirse (sair-sha) is the Irish word for "freedom".
Odéimin (oh-DAY-im-in) is the Ojibwe word for "strawberry" or more literally, "heartberry".
She will also have both of our last names, which on paper look rather common compared to what precedes them. 

Saoirse was actually one of Brendan's favorite names when we were pregnant with the twins but I just couldn't get on board with the spelling and Brendan was unwilling to compromise the integrity of it by moving a couple of letters around, maybe splitting up a few of those vowels? I am glad he stood his ground and I can clearly see why I couldn't bring myself to give this name away to Nuala, it never belonged to her, it was waiting for it's rightful owner to arrive.
Odéimin took a little longer, but Saoirse has a strawberry birthmark on her forehead that pinks up rather dramatically when she cries, and it does in fact look like a little heart right smack dab in the middle of her little furrowed brow. 

So there you have it, our name game. We actually decided on this name before she was even born, before we knew for certain that my instincts were right and that we were going to have another girl. We didn't even have any boy names picked out, not one.

This is the first time I have ever named my child before actually meeting them, but I have to say the name fits her perfectly. I just threw this video together rather quickly, and probably should have waited until I could get it just right, but the perfectionist in me is tired and I really wanted to share this now..... 



On my due date, June 2nd, I was driving with the twins while listening to this song, and I began wondering if perhaps it was Saoirse's song or not. As soon as Nina Simone belted out "Freedom is mine..." I completely lost it, water works central, and it was just another confirmation of what I already knew to be true. 
(I am so relieved that she proved me right!)

Popsicles

I still haven't gotten around to writing our birth story, but will definitely get to it soon since I want it to be fresh in my mind when it gets re-told. Only time for pictures again today, and un-edited ones at that, but they speak volumes and tell their own story quite well. Sarah brought the kids to visit us in the hospital and it was total chaos, but well worth it especially since the nursing staff showered everyone with popsicles.
(Oh and they enjoyed meeting their new sister too!)





















We'll have to sit down for a real family photo soon, you can only do so much in a crowded hospital room......


Friday, June 5, 2009

June8ug




Not much time for a post yet, but I thought we should at least give you a decent shot of this little girl....in all of her hairy glory! We are doing just great and are trying to arm wrestle our way out of the hospital and back home to our family. I cannot believe how wonderful I feel not even 16 hours after her birth.
Absolutely wonderful.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Welcome!



She is here and is absolutely more beautiful and perfect than I imagined.
We welcomed her at 10:22pm on June 4th, 2009
8lbs 15 ounces, 21 and 3/4 inches.
We are in love.
We are in awe.
We are incredibly blessed.