Old Stuff

Jake is out of town hanging out with his Army buddies for his monthly drill.  All the kids are in bed.  House Hunters International isn't on.  It is nights like this that I like to go back through and look at old pictures.

Like this...

This blurry picture is the first time I held my first child.  He was almost 2 weeks old.  I still remember exactly what I was wearing and how it felt like I wasn't holding anything at all.

This is the day he finally broke the 4 pound mark.  See how big his pants are?  They were preemie sized.  His poor little head was so misshapen; they called him toaster head at the pediatrician's office.

After Spencer came home from the NICU, my sister, who lived with us until Spencer was 3, was a huge help.  Jake was still deployed and I was beat.  She took over for me this morning so I could go pump.  I love this picture of them.

One day, we're going to play a game of "Spencer or Fin."  I'm amazed at how much those two look alike.  These were taken by a high school classmate of mine, Kyle McLaughlin, for Spencer's first birthday.

Fin's version is just a bit more chunky.

One of the most fun things that I've ever done is the road trip I took with Spencer when he was two.  We went to St. Louis, Indianapolis, Washington D.C., Roanoke, and Nashville.  Basically a big circle.  While we were there, Spencer, who was very newly 2, was in the midst of his obsessive stroller pushing phase.

At Grant's Farm in St. Louis

On the hotel balcony in Indianapolis

At the Lincoln Memorial

Going to get it at the Iwo Jima Memorial

Finally consented to ride due to exhaustion.

For Halloween that year, Spencer wanted to be Elmo.  He was so excited.  Then I pulled the costume (which was $60 b/c I forgot to order it and had to overnight it) out of the box and he was terrified.  Once we convinced him to put it on he was fine, but it was sheer terror up to that point.

He was much more pleasant the next year when he was a "big wide mouth frog."

Ugliest costume ever? Perhaps.

37 weeks pregnant with Jack, I loved every minute.

What can I say about Jack?

He's going to be a person all his own, I can tell.

He isn't a risk taker.

He is, however, fiercely opinionated.  When he doesn't get his way and he cries, he is so loud that you want to do whatever you can to MAKE IT STOP.  He rules through terror.

But he is also a lover.  He mainly loves his daddy with me coming in a good second.

39 weeks pregnant with Fin and the reason I'll eventually need a tummy tuck.

Poor Fin.  Spencer has 2 albums with almost 300 pictures.  Jack has one album with roughly 100 pictures.  Fin's album has 7 pictures in it.  I'm going to work on that.

Fin is still figuring out who he is.

He's a lot more laid back than Jack ever thought about being as a baby.

He'll let strangers talk to him, which is really nice.

I'll tell you one thing, though, this kid will be my daredevil.

And now I'm tired.