Fall catchup

Nora "going crazy."

I know, I've been delinquent in posting new pics... and have already heard about it from some of our fans! So here is a whole new batch, and I'll get our Halloween pictures up asap, if not tonight.

Fall's been great. John is growing like a weed, or more like a pumpkin. He's rounder every day! Brett kept saying he thought John was bigger at his age than Nora at the same age, but I could never tell. Today, I got out her old records to check -- he's much bigger! At his 2 month appt, he weighed close to 14.5 lbs, but Nora weighed a mere 11 lb 12 oz! I did the notoriously inaccurate weigh myself w/ John then w/o John two days ago, and the difference was 18.5 lbs. We'll have an official weigh in later this month for his 4 mo checkup, but putting on weight is not a problem for this little guy!

He's been very smiley, laughing a lot -- and Nora's warmed right up to him and now thinks he's just the greatest (whew!) He's also very vocal -- usually more so when I'm trying to leave a voicemail message for someone!

He hates to be down low in a bouncer seat when we're eating dinner, and I remembered that our high chair reclines, so now he sits up at table level with us when we eat (he drools and watches our every eating motion... he's so ready to eat, but I'm afraid will be sorely disappointed in the rice cereal when he finally gets the green light!)

We took the kids to the cider mill, where Nora scored a huge bag of day old doughnuts to feed the ducks (who were surprisingly lean for a likely non-stop diet of doughnuts, though Brett said their cholesterol was probably sky high!) Cider and doughnuts for us, always a big hit.

And last but not least, John was baptized! We were so fortunate to have so much of his family and so many friends join us for the celebration.

And here's a picture for Great-Grandpa Riggs, who requested (on John's behalf, I'm sure!) that John get in some quality overalls time after having to spend the day in his baptismal gown. :)

Wedding Dance

A few weekends ago (the weekend it rained like crazy around here) we went to Brett's cousin's wedding. Nora prepped for this for WEEKS with a lot of dance practice. It paid off... she was the queen of the dance floor before dinner. We initially tried to convince her to stay off the dance floor because we thought maybe it was bad form to let your kids dance out there before the bride and groom officially open up the floor with their first dance? But, good luck keeping a two year old off a perfectly good dance floor for three hours! So she and the kids of one of Brett's other cousins ran around and shook their booties.

Nora initially would not let me try dresses on her to see what would fit her for the wedding (she hates trying on clothes... just like her mama!). Since one of her favorite book characters is Fancy Nancy, and Nancy says her favorite color is fuschia (a fancy word for purple!), I had told Nora it was too bad she didn't want to try on this dress, because it was fuschia, but I would just put it back into the closet. She looked at dress, looked at me , looked back at the dress and said "Ok, you can put that fuschia dress on me for the wedding." I thought about a trying different dress too, but the decision was FINALIZED as far as Nora was concerned!


Shall we dance?


Nora leading Cole and Ashlynn around the dance floor at full speed


Dancing with dad (at the end of the night... getting sleepy!)


John with Grandma


The party's over!


Brett, me, Nora, Brett's Uncle Steve, Grandma Beth, John, Aunt Alison, Uncle Erick, Grandpa Chris


Cole and Nora


Nora and another young guest... she was introducing herself and inviting other kids to come onto the dance floor too

The wedding was very nice, and I don't have a single picture of the bride and groom! It was fun to see Brett's family, and particularly to spend time with Alison and Erick, who made a long roadtrip to be there for the weekend. Both kids did great, especially Nora with skipping a nap and having a long night (for her). I'll have to track down a good picture of John in his "little man" get-up to post... he looked so funny in a button down white shirt and khaki pants -- not to mention his socks with little loafers on them! Thanks to the Jameses for lending us his spiffy clothes -- he was a sharp-dressed man. :)

New photos, at last

Not much to write... I really need to get to bed. But until I can post a more complete update, here are some of the 180 pictures I just uploaded from the camera tonight!













Noteworthy news: John had his 2 month checkup- 14lbs 6.5oz (~90th percentile), and Nora weighs 30 1/2 lb (she got weighed too). Both are healthy and happy. :)

Nora got a "real" haircut at Snipits (kid's hair salon/ barber shop) and called it 'Nipits for a few weeks. She was all business when she was getting her haircut... very good at following directions!



John's cord FINALLY fell off this past week (almost 10 weeks after he was born) and so got to take his first real bath tonight.

Porky Snorter and the Chameleon

John's first smile on film!

This might be one of my shortest posts... sleep is a sweet commodity around here and I have a chance to hit the hay in the next half an hour!

John is three weeks old... last Monday he had his two week checkup and was 1/2 oz shy of 10 lbs even. That jumped him from the 50th-60th percentile for weight to 97th percentile! I was surprised. Makes all those night feedings seem not so bad, though... they're obviously doing the trick. So, he's porky... and he is so snorty! So much more so than Nora was. He sounds like a disgruntled little old man all the time. He did start taking a bottle from Brett last week (HOORAY!!) so I can smell the sweet scent of freedom in my future (Nora did not take a bottle... it was a looooong year).


chilling out after bath time

As for the Chameleon... if you've been around at all you know that Nora is having some sort of identity issue -- every day she's someone new. At first she was Grandma Beth, then Aunt Grace, then Uncle Jim... each for a few days. Now it changes minute by minute, and her roles have included Beth, Mike, Angie, Tom, Mommy, the mail lady, the package guy, the bank lady ("would you like a sucker?"), the plumber, the guy who brings you eggs for dinner (?!), a turtle, a butterfly, Sandy the squirrel, Spongebob, Patrick, a puppy, kitten Nora, baby John, a "real" baby, Grandma Di -- even Jesus. We went to have our car seats checked this weekend, and she told all the volunteers that she was Bob. They were awesome and played right along with her! Along with each of these alternative identites I usually get reassigned as well... often to match whoever she may be, but most frequently as Marguerite ("Marg-a-weet"). She even corrected the doctor at John's checkup to let her know she (Nora) was Aunt Grace and I was Marguerite. What a nut.

She's still getting used to having John in the house. She's very sweet to him, but lashes out at me and/ or Brett at least once a day with a tantrum. Hopefully not for much longer, but otherwise she's doing great. Here she is nursing her baby (who also has had multiple identities -- when she was Aunt Grace, he was Lucas; when she was Tom, he was Ethan; then he was Jacob (not sure where the name came from) and tonight before bed, inexplicably "Nunkie") :

she told me he gets milk from her belly button. Amazing!

Hope all is well with all you faithful blog checkers! Take care-

Sarah, Brett, Nora and John

A Man on a Mission

We are thrilled to announce that our little boy arrived this past Sunday, July 13th (his due date!) after a VERY quick and intense five hours of labor (thanks, buddy!) -- here are some pictures.

John Patrick Huffman
8 pounds, 11 ounces
20 inches
Born at 2:53pm, July 13, 2008

Everything went very well, he came so fast though that we didn't even have time to call our families to tell them he was on his way. Minor labor started as we walked out the door to go to Mass. By the time we got home, things were getting more intense, so I started keeping track. Within 45 minutes, I knew we'd be going to the hospital, so we activated the Nora-watching plan. Within 20 more minutes, my mom arrived and we were out the door. 30 minutes later, I was huffing and puffing in a wheelchair at the admissions desk... 5 minutes later in triage, they bolted me straight into Labor and Delivery where a SWAT team of nurses hustled my admission (they can't order the all-important epidural w/o me being in the computer). Within a short period of time (that felt REALLY long to me), the anesthesiologist arrived and got me set up with my epidural, which helped a lot. I relaxed a little for a short period of time, but about ten minutes after they rolled me onto my right side to get the epidural to work better on that side, my water broke. Brett popped out into the hallway to notify the nurse, and when she came in to check it out, she told me not to move. She said as soon as they rolled me onto my back, I was going to have that baby, and they wanted to give the doctors at least three minutes to get into the room and get gowns and gloves on! SWAT team #2 swarmed into the room, five minutes later they said "let's go," and about ten minutes after that, John was here! Brett and I barely felt like we were keeping up with the developments as we found out about them. As we were getting ready for delivery (we were right there... the nurse was telling me to get ready for my first push), our head nurse turns to Brett and says "I forgot to ask! How are you going to be with all of this? Will you feel faint?!" I would have laughed if it weren't for everything else I was focused on, because if he did have an issue, it would have been way too late for him! He was trapped in the room by the position of me, the doctors and all of the support staff, even if he'd wanted to bolt! But he did great, just like when Nora was born.

It turned out that Chris had dropped Beth off on his way to our house (we'd called them when it was looking probable that I was having real contractions, and they left Portage immediately). We'd actually gotten a call in the room that one of our parents was there, but it was right after the nurse had told me not to move and called for the doctor, so Brett told the receptionist he couldn't come out because the baby was coming, and could she please tell whichever parent it was to call the other parents to let them know? So when all was said and done, he went to the waiting room and found his mom, John's first visitor.

My parents were by that time on their way to the hospital and arrived ~15 minutes after Beth came back

And Brett got in touch with Chris at the house who got Nora up from her non-nap and they came about 15 minutes after my parents

Nora seemed excited to see us and the baby, but was a little wary of all the hospital equipment, my IV and blood pressure cuff, etc.

Andy came to visit after everyone got back from dinner

and Genny and Clare arrived straight from Chicago later on, but still in time to meet John on his birth-day!

The next day Lon, Diane and Brett's grand-pa Riggs came over to see John

and Angie

and Genny and Clare came back with Tristan (Andy's girlfriend) -- I unfortunately don't have a picture on my camera so will have to get copies from Gen or Clare

and Beth and Chris brought Nora back up to visit again

Everything went very well with all the post-delivery checkups, so we opted to leave the hospital a day early and came home at about 10pm Monday. Since then, we're just getting used to having a baby in the house! W/ the early discharge, we had to take him to teh pediatrician yesterday, and his weight was down to 8lbs 4oz. But we took him back today for a jaundice check (he was looking a little tan, and you know we aren't tan folks!), and he's already rebounded to 8lbs 6.5oz. Looks like he might follow the same porker track his sister took in the first year. He's a very good baby, so far only cries when he's hungry, naked, or gassy, and is otherwise very mellow. Nora is very interested in him and getting more and more comfortable with him around.

Thanks for all your well wishes as the due date approached, and thanks to those of you who have already e-mailed us with congratulations... we really appreciate it.

Take care,
Sarah, Brett, Nora, and John

I can do it all by myself

The title is a little homage to Nora's favorite thing to say... even when she's not necessarily doing anything by herself. "I can put my shoes on all by myself. I need your help, mom. [mom helps] I put my shoes on all by myself!"



Sorry for not even meeting my low, low standard of one post for month last month! As we get closer to the baby's due date, our level of activity around here has been rising steadily. Last week was extremely productive (items crossed off my lists left and right... it was great!) If this continues, this week looks to break a record as far as us getting things done! Brett finished building a new closet for our bedroom, and we moved our clothes in there last week... it's great! And now the baby's room is officially full of just the baby's things (it was our catchall for everything that didn't have a home during the closet-building) That was a big effort, and he did a really nice job. We've also been getting a lot of lingering jobs done... our home will be in the best shape it's been in by the time this little guy arrives! Even so, Brett's been great about making time for Nora. They went to the zoo a few weeks ago on the Family Membership Nora and I got him for Father's Day... the penguins were a huge hit, and she has been talking about them ever since (and demonstrating how they walk).


If you look closely, you will see that the heroine of this book, Lily, is wearing the same goofy fake nose/ mustache/ eyebrow glasses on the cover of the book as the ones Nora is sporting for the reading!



A little update on Nora, since this will likely be the last blog entry in which she is the main star, she's had a big month and a half or so since I last wrote.

I also gave her her first haircut. Brett came home from work and said "she looks like a different kid!" Since it was her baby hair, it was all different lengths, which made it hard to cut it into any particular style. She did great at sitting still, though (still being a relative term), so once it grows out a bit, I might take her to the kiddie salon to see if they can shape it up a little.


getting her first haircut


running around during a dance session... this is post-haircut


We also finally removed the featherbed landing pad in her room, and so far, so good. She has, however, started getting out of bed during naptime and going through her things, looking out the window, emptying dresser drawers, putting on lotion (silly mom, why did you leave it within reach if you didn't want me to touch it?) etc. So we've had a few talks about what she can touch (books and 'guys' [stuffed animals]) and what she can't touch (the shade, anything in or on the dresser) when she's in the room by herself. That is still sinking in. The other day we went in to get her in the morning and the first thing she said was "I didn't touch that shade all by myself," which appeared to be true (apparently it was very tempting since she had to tell us about it right away!) The next morning, she said the same thing even though the little strip of wood they put in the bottom of the shade was 3/4 of the way out and hanging onto her bed --hmmmm, if it wasn't Nora, we have an elf problem in our house!


This "N" is hanging above Nora's bed, and a few weeks ago I came in after an unsuccessful nap attempt to find poor "Baby Elmo" hanging by his leg like this! I asked her how he got up there and she just shrugged.




A few weeks ago Brett went to get Nora up, and found this scene... we didn't even count the books, but I can tell you there are at least three pairs of shoes in there.

Aside from her learning to do more and more on her own, she's been keeping us laughing with all that she talks about now. She says something that makes us laugh almost every day... a lot of pretending going on around here. In fact, for the beginning of the week, she was a puppy, and corrected me if I just call her Nora. "I'm PUPPY NORA, mom." For the last three days, she's been Grandma Beth, I've been Grandpa Chris, and Brett has been Alison (her aunt). She is very committed to our roles... if I forget to address her correctly, she'll repeat what I've said and add "... GRANDMA BETH" to the end of it until I correct myself! During her nap today, she was calling to me and interrupted herself as she said "mom" and changed it to "Grandpa Chris." A week ago, she was wearing her green blanket over her head and told us she was an alien (a very hard work to wrap your tongue around, apparently... it took a couple tries!) When she pushed the blanket back from her face to talk to us, it hung on the top of her head and she promptly told us she was Mary, and followed that up with "I like to dance!" (A little known fact about the Blessed Mother!) She spent the rest of the day with a blanket on her head being Mary and taking care of her baby doll, Jesus (who she alternately referred to as "Baby God"... I thought that was a surprising hold on Christian theology for a 2 year old!) Her guys are also up to more and more interesting things... a few weeks ago I came into the kitchen to find that she'd set up Little Fil with some lunch, and had two other guys (Buddy the wooden dog and Hundley the dachsund) waiting for their turn to eat:



pretending to be a "space monkey"

The other night we watched the last highlights of the olympic trials, and she was fascinated by the runners. She was a big fan of Lolo Jones (sprinter), and this morning when we were asking her if she remembered any of the runners, she told us that Lolo was "Lolo of the Jones." Her memory surprises me all the time, so don't swear in front of her!

Other than that, our obvious other event is that the baby is due this month. This coming Sunday, to be exact. The doctor said everything is looking good, things are starting to happen but there's still no telling if he'll be here by Sunday. I'm feeling like I can go up to a week past my due date, but after that, I make no guarantees as to how pleasant and/ or patient I'll be! We've got his room straightened out and cleaned up, and I pulled out the rest of the newborn baby stuff from our storage closet earlier this week (car seat, bouncy seat, the good old Boppy pillow, etc). His clothes are washed, his bed made... we're all set -- except for his name. Fear not, we're coming along on that too, though. We're just kind of last minute namers, as it turns out. :)

So given that I'm not a lightning-fast blogger and am about to be knocked off the computer completely by bringing a new baby home, this might be our last post for a little while. I will try to at least get some pictures of the little guy up once we bring him home.

Thanks, as always, for checking in. Wish us luck as we hit the final stretch of the baby waiting game!
Love,
Sarah, Brett, Nora, and he-who-shall-soon-be-named