Poopy Diapers, Brother Stories, and More

It has been a while since I’ve shared a few stories, and I also want to fill in some gaps we’ve left about how everything is going so far with Max and my Mom being here. Dougle objects to the length of this blog and you might too! Enjoy what you want, scan it, look at the pictures, whatever is best for you! For those avid readers out there, I just wanted to let you in on a bit of our lives recently!

First of all, it is great having my Mom here. I am blessed with a wonderful family who helps us out and does so much for us, near or far. And having here near for a while has been great! We have had good Mommy-Daughter talks, she plays and plays with Canaan and she helps care for Max, even in the middle of the night when he hasn’t figured out it is sleeping time! And this week, she is going to help me organize and clean my house, since it is still in a bit of chaos from moving, settling, having a baby and having the rooms in disarray while being re-wallpapered! Of course, I am going to have to share her with Canaan. He is having a super time with his new reading and playing buddy. He is always following her around, “Gran-Nan, read this book to me. Gran-Nan, come in the living room and play with me (actually, he says, play with us!). Gran-Nan, sit down and eat with me!” My only regret for her is the timing. Now is not the prettiest time of year, especially since it seems to be unusually warm right now. This means that the temperatures have been sitting right on or above freezing ever since she arrived. While this warmer weather may sound nice, it is not. It means that now the snow is melting and it rains instead of snows (fresh snow is so white and beautiful and crisp and clean, while the rain just makes everything look drab and gray). Thankfully, we had a beautiful snow the day she arrived and she got to see how pretty it was before everything started warming up and melting. And for us, it feels so warm, even though our highs are around 35 degrees!

Second, Canaan is doing great so far as a big brother. The first day we brought Max home, I think he felt very threatened. He acted funny all day, and I was worried about how long it would take for him to adjust. However, the next day he just was indifferent to Max. It helped that I was able to get up with Max and feed him, while he played with Daddy. Then Max went back to sleep in his crib and we were able to have some “normal” time together, with the 3 of us eating breakfast together and getting ready. I think this made Canaan feel that Max was not so much of a threat as he thought. In addition, he has been spending a lot of time with Gran-Nan and Auntie and David. We’ve had to stay at Liv and Dave’s apartment all day for several days in a row because of the re-wallpapering going on in our hallway. So he has been surrounded by people who love him and play with him and I think that has helped a lot with his adjustment to having a little brother around!

Canaan does seem to be progressing with his indifferent attitude toward Max. The other day, the 4 of us were in the car and Max was crying. Soon I heard Canaan saying, “It okay Max. It okay Max.” He said it over and over with his hand reaching over to Max’s car seat. It was precious. Max has also been in Canaan’s mind when he thinks of our family. Yesterday, Canaan found a big book that Auntie Livi is reading. To Canaan, all big books with tiny print are Bibles. I came in the room and asked what he was doing and he told me he was reading Auntie’s Bible. Then he asked to find Canaan in the Bible and read it. This comes from Bible class, where we open our Bibles and tell each kid that it says God loves them. For Canaan, we open up the Bible and point and say, “God loves Canaan!” So, I leaned over and we looked in Auntie’s “Bible” and read, “God loves Canaan!” Then Canaan wanted to find Mommy and Daddy and Max too. So we flipped pages and said, “God loves Mommy;” a few pages later we “found” Daddy and said, “God loves Daddy;” then he finally he asked to find Max and we said, “God loves Max!” How sweet my little boy is! Oh, and he did discover yesterday that Max makes a good mini hill for animals to hop over. Using Max for his toys isn’t too new of a thing since he thought my big belly made a great ramp for his cars when I was pregnant!

About poopy diapers, well, who knew you could be so excited to have them? Of course, Dougle wasn’t. But I was. Max had his first few dirty diapers in the hospital, where they come out all black and tar-like and sticky. Then he stopped. He hadn’t had a poopy diaper since last Wednesday morning. I had started to worry, but was told (and later read) that I shouldn’t worry about it. Never-the-less, I felt very happy and pleased when Max finally gave us a really big and messy, green diaper last night!!

Oh, I did want to post a picture too of Canaan helping Uncle David work on a shelf or something. While I was in the hospital with Max, Canaan stayed with David and Olivia. We sure were grateful to them for keeping Canaan. It was wonderful knowing how much Canaan loves to be with them and knowing that they were taking good care of him made it so much easier being apart from him for those few days! And, they’ve let us crash their house for several days in a row, throwing them off their routine and schedule, as we’ve been spending all day there during the re-doing of our hall. It has turned out to be a bigger project than anticipated, since some of the plaster and concrete came off with the old wallpaper! So, we appreciate the fact they let us come over, they help feed us and they just put up with us all being underfoot right now! It isn’t easy having your tiny apartment filled with a new mom, her hubby, a toddler and a newborn, and Gran-Nan too! So, thanks Auntie and David!

One more funny story of Canaan. Yesterday, he found his back pocket in his jeans. It sits a little lower on his hind end (since he doesn’t have much of one to hold up his pants) and it is tighter. But he managed to get his whole hand in it, right before he sat down. Of course, sitting down made the pocket become tighter around his hand and he couldn’t get it out. He said, “Heeelp! My fingers stuck!!” as he scooted around on the floor trying to pull his hand out of his pocket and trying to stand up with just one free hand. We just laughed. It was soo funny. Finally he was able to get up and Daddy was able to help him free his hand from his pocket, while laughing, of course! It was too funny. He provides us with so much entertainment!

Well, that’s all for now. Hope you enjoyed reading. Thank you for your prayers and comments and notes during this time of change for us! We love you all!