Sleep Deprivation Rocks: Part Deux

It's been a while since I've posted because with two kids there are certain ramifications that happen: you sleep less, you don't get enough sleep and you become sleep deprived. After looking over all my posts from the past, I've noticed that most of them occur around the 9:00-10:00pm time frame. Back in the day, we only had one kid and it wasn't uncommon for us to hang around downstairs until all hours of the night just relaxing and reminiscing. Now we're lucky if we can stay awake until V goes to bed at 8:00.

I've also noticed that many of these posts going forward will be turning into Part Deux. There are too many similarities between children to go unnoticed. I find comfort in knowing that I won't have to go through any weird retaliation for having less posts than with the first child. This kid is totally boring compared to V. V would flail around, cry, scream and carry on all day long. J just sleeps, eats and poops. She's normal. There's nothing cool about normal. So in all fairness, here's one more round of J pics before I get bored and go back to more ACTION SHOTS with V. Don't say I didn't warn you:

At a very early age, J already knows how to blow bubbles.

Even though the shirt says it, Mom cut off the cool part.

The morning of her first trip to church and J's excited to be alive!

We have to pour ice water on her to get her to do anything.

Already practicing her stealth skills to run away from any would be dates until she's 35.

Awww... Ok... we'll keep her.

Jacinda Faye Lee: 6 lb 12 oz, 19"

Well folks, it happened again. There's a couple of you out there that didn't think we'd ever do it again but we did. Once again I predicted the birth date. Let me know if you'd like me to do it for you and I'll send you a quote. It's a skill that I've honed over two kids. Upon prediction of said birth date, I 100% guarantee inaccuracy 100% of the time. Now that we've had another kid, it's time to start posting pictures of it. We can't have her feeling like she's less important or the fourth wheel now can we?

Since the rundown of events was so popular last time, here's another play-by-play that is sure to tickle your fancy in all the right ways (All times are approximate):
8/31 - 3:00 am - April wakes up because of contractions.
4:00 - The Proverbial Elbow to the Husband. I wake up and start keeping track of contractions.
5:30 - They're pretty steady at 5-6 minutes apart. We call the mothers and they come running/driving.
7:00 - April's mom says she should take a nap to prepare for this evening. She agrees and the world rejoices.
8:30 - April's up and the contractions have stopped. She freaks accordingly because at this moment my Mom is currently driving 4 hours over to watch The Kid.
9:15 - Contractions start again at a steady 5-6 minutes. We head to the park to distract V and to start walking the kid down.
11:00 - We hear Panera Bread food can make you have a kid so we go and eat. We're now at 4-5 minutes.
1:00 - We're averaging 4 minutes per contraction so we go to the Dr. and she says if they go to 3 minutes, we're having a baby. We decide to go for a walk at the park.
2:00 - After some serious park walking, April's the model of complete composure totally freaking out. Contractions are 3 minutes and really painful. We call the hopsicle, go pick up April's mom and drive Dukes of Hazzard style to the hopsicle.
2:45 - We're in the "You might have a baby but don't hold your breath room" checking April out to see if she can stay.
3:00 - That didn't take long. We're moved into the "We're 99% sure this is happening" room. They ask April if she wants to go "au natural" and she says "AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!" This means "Yes" in Pregnant. Cue the call to the Dr.
5:00 - Contractions are steady at 2-3 minutes and getting more severe. No water break yet but she measures at 7 cm. This baby is totally coming.
5:20 - Dr. says this is going to go on too far if your water doesn't break soon. Luckily with the advent of modern technology, we can break waters without too much hassle. Dr. tells her that this is when the pain really gets crazy. Then she breaks the water
5:21 - Cue crazy pain.
5:30 - Begin pushing.
5:47 - We have liftoff! Instant baby screaming fills the halls where there was only pregnant woman screams just moments before!

Here are some pictures cataloging the moments that will stay in our lives until the ends of time. I'll be posting more soon but right now I'm falling asleep as I type. Go ahead and sleep while you can because I'm not:

She did not like the 70 armbands/belly bands/garbage on her.

Dad gets to give the first bath to her!

Great picture of us acting like we're not exhausted.

V's first holding session with J! Mimi's right there to referee.

She saluted the hopsicle on her way out the door.

Seriously... this is the cutest picture you've ever seen. Admit it.

An Opportune Moment: Part Deux

I just looked over the post I typed the day before our first daughter was born (4/11/10). So I looked up "opportune" in the dictionary and this is what it said: "appropriate, favorable, or suitable" or "occurring or coming at an appropriate time; well-timed." After some exhaustive searching on the Puyallup School District website, we learned that the cutoff date for Kindergarten Registration is August 31st. So what they're trying to tell me, is that in just this one day there's enough change that I might have to keep my kid around the house for one more year? One day? That's the craziest thing I've ever heard.

God knows we love Him and we're going to be extremely grateful for one year closer to kid retirement if the new kid is born today. I closed that post last time with "The nice thing is that when it does happen, it'll be in God's time and, if I'm not mistaken, at the Opportune Moment." Sounds to me like God's time is right now!

Well, we're off to the hospital to have the Kid

Summer's Still Here

We've had some great weather the last few weeks. Even when it's been "cool" in the high 60's, we'll get some nice 70's and maybe 80's the next couple days. A week ago we had some 90's days strung together and it made it a rough time trying to sleep. About 5% of the houses in the area have central air and 100% have central heat. This causes people to do crazy things like get a hotel room 5 minutes from their house because the interior of their own home is hotter than it is outside. We had a fun time frolicking in the heat until sleep time came. Fortunately it only took V 30 minutes and about four different crying instances to get to sleep. Once she did, she slept very soundly.

With just a couple days to go (hopefully) until baby #2, we'll have a plethora of V pictures so she doesn't feel neglected when her new sister enters the real world. The great thing is that we will have two girls to grace the blog's presence when we're done. Here's the recap of things that happen while it's hot outside:

We catch rays in our incredibly spacious back yard.

We try new hot sauces outside so we can spit it out directly.

Let's practice our we love it faces!

V stares off into the distance as in an epic movie.

We practice our stinky faces when #2 goes down the tube.

This was V's first night in her new bed. Who needs covers?

Beach House 2012

The Bi-Yearly Beach House Trip Extravaganza was a week ago and I figured now is the time to write about it since I usually wait until a month after something happens. I still write about it eventually so BACK OFF! I'm proud to say that there were no deaths at the beach house this year. Although we had our fair share of cloudy mornings, we had amazing weather all week. It was at least above the 70s every day and in the 80s on our final weekend. The 80s at Seaside? AW YEAH! Fun in the sun! The best part about this is that we get to jump in 33 degree water and then actually come out of the water to hot weather. The majority of the time it's warm or cold, so you don't even go into the water. Good weather = Good times.

We did all the fun things like going down town to see the Candy Man and we must've got at least a dozen free taffies from him. We played the "Roll the Ball Into the Holes and There's Literally so Much Skill Involved That Only the Most Intelligent People on the Planet Can Master It No Skill Involved" Game. I won 7 times... IN A ROW! What's up now? I'm going to go professional and see if the Olympics will pick it up. We built eleventy seven sand castles. We did all the essentials yo. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures to recap what happened... Well, really it's just a bunch of pictures of V because we know, THAT is what you really want:

Dad: OK V, this is how you make a sand castle.
V: So you pat it like this...

V: Then you DESTROY IT!!!

V: Then you mock them mercilessly!

V: It's a new day and I think I'll be normal for a change...

V: Until I use the beach sand as a Slip & Slide®! WOO HOO!

I just included this to prove that all the kids were having a blast.

Good Weather = Good Times

Last week we had 80 degree weather and it felt great! The nice thing about having a two year old and hot weather is that they want to go outside every moment. The bad thing is that when it's cold, they don't understand why they can't play outside. So you send them outside and they freeze because it's cold and raining. We've noticed that V doesn't really have a cold "button" when she goes outside. She plays until shes a shaking, freezing mess. It's actually quite funny.

Yesterday I had some dental work done that was pretty much the most painful thing I've had done on my teeth since getting my wisdom teeth pulled. Thankfully the good Lord blessed us with a less than stellar weather day so I didn't feel the obligation to go outside until it warmed up. One of the worst things that can happen to a Dad on his day off with the kid is to be too sick to take advantage of it. It's not my most shining moment, but it was unavoidable with the amount of pain I was in. The Wif said that I deserve it for all the times I've worked and she's had to be home by herself. I'll keep working on her.

So we're sitting here inside on a cloudy, semi-raining day (which is pretty much par for the course around here) wondering when it'll be warm enough to go outside again. Instead of going outside, I guess we'll look at pictures of going outside when it was warmer. Aunt Karina moved to Oklahoma a couple weeks ago & here's a recap of their final summer visit before she left:

V: Tire swing for two! A great way to spend the day!

V: It's so bright out here, I can't see myself swing. Still having fun though!

V: Shades make this swing experience much better.

V: Every slide is better with a hug!

V: Aunt Karina just saw that I took my pants off. It's hot out here!

V: Preemptive goodbye wave to Aunt Karina. We love you!

Lake Wenatchee

Again to the Leavenworth Chronicles! It's the only vacation we've had in two months so BACK OFF! April thinks that you guys don't care that much but I don't see her posting too many posts up in here. In fact, go through the list of posts and see how many she's done. Go ahead... I'll wait... Yup, you guessed it: None. Zilch. Nada. The Fatty Nil. Zero. Do you ever notice how the all the words that mean "nothing" all begin with Z or N? That's crazy peoples.

We went back to Lake Wenatchee later in the week and it was absolutely gorgeous! The best part was that there was amazing weather in a place where there is also snow. How often does this happen on the west side of the mountains? Never. Not at all. Zippo. You get the idea. So we did like any other normal people would do and allowed our two year old to play around in the lake. There are times where we actually had her in the stroller and parading around the park as you'll see, but aren't the moments where you can capture the embarrassing High School graduation pictures the ones you have to capture? I say yes. So here are our attempts at capturing those moments... and it didn't happen. She's the cutest kid on Earth! How are we supposed to compete with that? Here ya go:

That's snow behind us on the ground & melted in our mouths.

It's a beautiful day in the mountains and V knows where to have fun.

Dad: What are you doing down there V?
V: I heard on TV that if you dig far enough you can reach China.

Dad: What are you pointing at V?
V: I took off my coat because it was hot and it fell down the hole.

Dad: Why did you take off your pants?
V: I'm protesting the hat Mom just put on me and if I'm going to catch this fish, I need clean pants later to fillet it.

Dad: How big was that fish you just caught?
V: This big!
Dad: That's my girl!