The Huddlestons Come for A Visit

Our dear friends, The Huddlestons came for a visit a month or so ago.  But Anne-Marie, I need you to send me some of your pics;)  I didn't take enough! 

Georgie and Joshua met for the first time!  Joshua is just a little chunk of delight!  He is always smiling!

And here's "best friend" Samuel.  Isaac and Samuel (darn me for not getting one of them together!!)  loved each other the moment they met and, 5 years later, still do.  Isaac still misses him.  And so do I.  What a sweet, sweet boy!

This is Emily.  

Emily looks like she just jumped out of Mark Twain or Charles Dickens novel.  And she has a personality to go right along with it.  She and Georgie get along just as well as the boys do.  Now if we could just marry them all off to each other we would have perfection!  Thanks for driving all that way, Huddlestons.  You know you're loved when someone comes to Altus for you;)

xoxo

Ash

Hard Work + Responsiblity = Grown Up = Isaac

Yesterday Isaac and I came up with a new equation.

Hard Work + Responsibility = Grown Up = Isaac

My boy is growing up;)  He got up this morning and got himself dressed for school without a single reminder.  (not totally uncommon for him but also not an every morning occasion)  This afternoon he had a couple of friends over and they ate dinner outside in the vacant neighboring backyard.  I asked him once to get dressed for Soccer practice sometime within the next hour.  When the hour was up I found him completely dressed.  As Joey and I were getting Georgie ready for her game, cleaning up dinner, changing Jet's diaper and trying to get out the door I discovered that Isaac was outside bringing in all the dinner dishes from the neighboring back yard.  That means climbing a fence with bowls, forks and cups.  I hadn't said a word to him about taking care of that mess and hadn't even considered that he would do it.    At soccer practice Isaac hustled his cute little tushy off, also not at all uncommon for him the past couple of soccer seasons.  The "above and beyond" came when after practice was done he wanted to practice even more.  While Joey and I watched Georgies game (more like somersault practice;) Isaac played soccer with his coach and his coaches two sons (they're AMAZING soccer players).  He played so hard that he threw up a little!!  When it came time for the coaches family to go home, Isaac came and got his Dad to come play with him some more.  "I practice 3 times tonight, Mom and I'm getting better!"

Upon arriving home he got himself a gigantic glass of water, hopped into the shower, brushed his teeth and put on his pajamas.  While Georgie finished up her night time rituals Isaac came out to talk to me and hold his little sister.  That's when I came up with our little equation.  It was so awesome to sit there and consider the boy that Isaac is with him.  I'm sure that many great days like this go by without my even noticing.  What a great feeling for both of us to be proud of his maturity together!  I can't believe how much he has grown up.  Although I love him for so much more than these great things that he does I do look forward seeing the little man (and then big man) that he becomes!  Hard Work + Responsibility = Isaac!  I love you buddy!

I Love My Ironman:)

My Ironman:

On September 25th Joey completed his first half Ironman.  WOW.  I can't stress enough the hard work that he put into preparing for this race.  Six am Saturday and Sunday mornings to avoid the afternoon heat during 3 hour long bike rides and 13 mile runs, weekly weight lifting, lunch hour lap swims, evening week night runs, interval training.  Joey ate, slept and breathed Ironman.

We packed our family into the minivan early on a Friday morning, drove to Oklahoma City, spent the day at the zoo, picked up his race packet and dropped off his bike, ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, a place that can guarantee you a carb load (and I got a cheesecake slice practically to myself...woo hoo;) and then headed for our hotel, courtesy of Uncle Bryant's Starwood Director position;).  The next morning Joey was up by 6 am and the kids and I, in our jammies, drove him to his race.  I asked him if he was nervous and he said not really.  He was lying;)  The kids and I went back to the hotel to get dressed and pack up.  Our plan was to return in time for his bike to run transition.  

But I got lost (if you know me at all, your not shocked..and yes I had a Garmin).  Isaac has seen this so many times that he no longer trusts me AT ALL behind the wheel!!  We found a spot for our lawn chairs along the run route and saw this:

After swimming 1.2 miles, biking 56 miles and 2 miles into his run he greeted us with a smile.  "You'll never guess what happened."  No, I wouldn't have.  "My pedal came off my bike while I was standing up and I crashed."  Ahhhhh!!!  His knee and arm were all bloody and he had a large scrape on his chin. "I'm fine.  It hurts but I'm fine."  The kids cheered him on each time he passed (four times) and even on his last leg he smiled and talked to us.  We cheered him into the finish line and heard over the loud speaker, "Joey Merback from Altus, OK.  He'd like to thank his wife Ashley for all her support."  ;)  

After gathering up his gear he began hobbling back to the car with us.  And, strangely, his wrist started KILLING him.  It felt so bad he was sure it was broken.  He had fallen off of his bike less than halfway through the race and not felt any wrist pain after the initial fall.  Isn't adrenaline amazing!?  Lo and behold, it wasn't broken, just a bad sprain but, still!!!  Joey held up impressively well for the rest of the day and into the next.  Just after the race he had said that he couldn't imagine doing that TWICE in a row....no way.  Full Ironman-ers were nuts!  By Tuesday or Wednesday the next week he was talking full Ironman.  Like a new Mom a few days after giving birth, he had forgotten how painful it all was.  

This one's for you, Dad.  This guy looked about your age and was a half ironman finisher.   Go ahead Dad, let the training begin!!

Here he is at the finish line, as spry as a young chicken!

And here we are back at the hotel.  Daddy pooped us out;)

And Juliet slept through the whole thing.  I can tell she's going to be LAZY!

And here's Georgie playing on the beach the night before.

Isaac too;)

The Zoo

Our visit to the Oklahoma City Zoo was awesome.  Hands Down, the best Zoo experience I've ever had.  We actually had some personal interaction with ALL the Gorillas, a Giraffe, and an Okapi.  

Georgie, our Jr. Mommy wanted to push the stroller around the whole time.

If the glass hadn't been there we would have touched noses, hands, shoulders, feet and exchanged breath with these Gorillas.  The biggest one marched right over and basically stared us down for about 2 minutes...it was as if he was trying to say something to us like, "See, I'm not afraid of you, but you're afraid of me"  The other ones wanted to play with us.  They were so friendly, wild and playful.  

So close!! 

Juliet: 2 months

Juliet:

2 months 

 These photos of Jet were taken on her 2 month birthday, September 29th. 

Happy 2 months in the world, Juliet!  We can't believe what a beautiful, sweet, happy, easy baby you are!!

Juliet is beginning to smile and even laugh at us now.  We hear her fussing in her crib when she wakes up from a nap and go in to get her.  As soon as she sees one of our faces her cry springs into a smile and then one of those suck-in-air kind of laughs that only babies can do.  Juliet loves to be talked to.  This also makes her smile.  She uses a pacifier to fall asleep but before she gives in to total sleepfulness she spits it out.  Georgie calls the pacifier a "saffy" so we've all taken to calling it that.  She sleeps in our bed at least half of the night, sometimes all night and I'm kind of loving it!  I never thought I could be a co-sleeping parent so we'll see how long this lasts!

Juliet: Our first month

Juliet's First Month

My goal is to take a picture of Juliet on the 29th of each month.  I'm not off to a very good start considering that I remembered this months photo session when she was already bathed, swaddled and being rocked to sleep.  But that's how I roll...by the seat of my pants.

I don't know if its because she's my third or possibly my last but I am totally enjoying every moment with this baby.  I don't feel rushed to get her to sleep, bugged when she wakes up early from a nap or roll my eyes when I have to change her diaper for the 3rd time in 20 minutes.  (I'm exaggerating a little bit but just go with me here:)  I'm successfully living in the now for the first (and probably the last) time of life.  I'm usually horrible at that.  And it seems to me that we all feel like that.  Joey wants to hold her as soon as he's walked in the door and changed out of his BDU's.  He holds her while I make dinner and while he eats dinner, and puts her to sleep almost every night.  She's totally spoiled:) 

 And Georgie wants to hold her like 15 times a day.   She gets tired of her in about 5 minutes because she's not aloud to walk around with her, shake her, hold her upside down or force stuffed animals and barbies in her face but then she's ready to go again about 30 minutes later.  

 Isaac seems to have found the perfect big brother balance.  He leaves her alone for the most part because she's usually sleeping or eating but if she's somewhere near his foot path he gives her a kiss and says, "ooooh she's so cute!"  The other day he said to me, "Mom, I don't want her to grow up and get all big and stuff."  "Me neither." I told him.  "She's so little and cute.  Why do we have to grow up?  I want us all to stay little forever."  Did he jump in my head?  I try not to say this outloud too much but the kid totally agrees with me!!  I was shocked to hear him say it.  I tried to give him my vote of confidence about how fun getting bigger is when what I really wished I could do was keep over and cry with him about it!

What We've been up to:

Juliet sleeps through the night about 40% of the time for the last 2 weeks now.  Don't hate me;)  We sleep together, she and I, in the queen size bed that's in her nursery.  I LOVE it.  She sleeps on the go in her car seat whenever we're running errands or at church, something my other two have NEVER done.  It's sooo nice!!  

When she was about 15 days old she had a fever.  We had to take her to the emergency room for a Lumbar Puncture and some blood tests.  We spent 48 hours in the hospital with her and discovered that she just had a UT Infection...nothing too scary!   For a few hours there I just knew that my worst nightmare was coming true and my child was going to die.  I cried off and on for the first few hours of our Emergency Room stay.  But, she's totally fine!!

She spent an entire day alone hanging out with Daddy while I went to Dallas to get Isaac from spending a week with my parents.  Joey was on call so he couldn't leave Altus.  She drank some bottles that I had pumped and Joey enjoyed spending alone time with her.  

I need to make an entire post about the dreamy time Isaac had with Gaga and Papa.  He cried so hard when he left them, as did my parents.  He watched shark week every night with Papa and came back a veritable dictionary of Shark facts.  More on that later.

Happy First month Birthday Juliet!!

Meet Juliet

Meet Juliet

Juliet is actually a really good baby...sleeps a lot, falls asleep fairly easy, nurses well, 

but if you're messin' with her, i.e. bath, diaper change, changing close, she's crying!  And she bleats like a little lamb when she cries.  It's pretty cute;)  So this picture really depicts the Juliet that we're all adoring right now.

And this one too...like all newborns, she sleeps alot!!

A rare, eyes open moment

Sweet Big Brother kisses

Squirmy, out of focus Big Sister kisses;)

All Is Right With The World

I'm feeling contemplative today and would love to get down some of our thoughts and feelings from our first few days with Juliet.

All Is Right With The World:
I don't remember it being instantaneous that the peaceful, serene feelings came to me.  Rather gradually  happiness seemed to envelope me and the words, "all is right with the world" came to my mind to describe how it felt.  I kept repeating them to myself and trying to relish in the perfectness that they described.   All was right with the world.  That is exactly how a new baby feels to me.  Any hard feelings that I'd held deep within the recesses of my brain seemed forgiven.  I loved everyone and everything.  My baby was with me and she was OURS.  It is an almost cleansing experience.  It wasn't that I didn't feel any sadness at all because I did.  But it was sadness born of love.  Though I had wanted a girl I still mourned, slightly, that my baby boy days were over.  I mourned for myself and I mourned for Isaac.  My heart sat slightly on pins and needles as I listened to Joey telling the kids that we'd had a girl.  Isaac had always said he didn't care what we had but I'd wondered if this was a defense mechanism.  Not one bit.  He was ecstatic to meet her, never making one comment about "boys" or regret.  He loved our baby for exactly who she was.  I think that will continue.

As the afternoon progressed and they kept her away from us for tests, a bath, measurements and screenings I began getting antsy to hold her again.   When we finally got our time with her I couldn't nestle close enough.  I had forgotten how soft a baby is, how sweet they smell and how much I would want Juliets tiny little face to bury itself into my neck and breath her shallow, warm breath.  My heart is a defenseless little puddle held by the chubbiness of her cheeks, the poutiness of her lips, the blackness of her eyes and the flatness of her ears smooshed so delicately against the sides of her head.  To kiss her is to soar.  I can't get off this high that she brings.  It is GLORIOUS!!  Dare I say I want to do this 10X more?  Have I forgotten, already, what it is to be pregnant?  ...Some great love that makes you forget that!!  But we have a little piece of heaven in our home.  And that is a great love.

Her Name:
The name Juliet struck me one day about 4 or 5 months ago and while we vascillated and continued to look for others up until her birth day, it seemed to stick.  I had wanted to use the middle name, Nannette because it would have been more after my Mother since she goes by Nann but Juliet doesn't go with that very well so we settled on Nina.  Nina is my Mom's first name, my grandma's first name and the middle name of my favorite cousin, Jillian.  Juliet is a fourth generation Nina.  I've decided that for giggles we'll have to get pictures taken of the four of them at JC Penney or Olan Mills the next time we're in Houston;)  Wouldn't that be hilarious!!  It seemed strange to call her Juliet at first, probably because we'd never called the baby anything when it was still in the womb...we hadn't had time to get used to it.  Plus, its three syllables and a bit sophisticated...to call something squirmy, and squishy that squeaks by a name that Shakespeare wrote with seems a bit strange.  But its settling on her nicely.  I shorten it to Jet sometimes and she's been called Jules by a few as well.  I like them both for nicknames.


Thoughts on "waiting":
Joey and I decided that if we ever had a third child we would wait to find out the sex because, conveniently, we have all the necessaries for a boy or a girl.  We proceeded with that decision when I became pregnant with Juliet.  I am so glad to have done it that way but wanted to point out the one downfall of that decision.  I didn't feel as connected to the baby while I was carrying her.  I couldn't really imagine her, her name, her interactions with our family, how she would dress, the things we might do together etc. because She was an It.  My imaginations of It were more vague, less reliable, and honestly much fewer than I remember with the other two.  But the excitement leading up to the birth, the curiosity, the discussions/guesses and, of course, the delivery made up for it.  I was concerned a bit by my lack of connection but about two days before she was actually born, it came.  I became MUCH less concerned with "un-pregnanting" myself and obsessed with anticipation of having a Baby again...my baby!  My Mom cut the chord and when Juliet was placed on my chest my heart yearned for my second little girl, instantly.  Once again, heaven entered into the picture.  It was as if heaven came out of my womb;)  (how's that for melo-dramatic!!)  I wanted to kiss and squeeze her but refrained from disscusting the nursing staff by putting my lips all over her adorable cheesy, bloody, grey/blue body.  I let them wipe her down a bit and began planting the kisses on her head and cheeks.  All my MOm, Joey and I could do was smile, laugh, kiss her and make observations about her looks.  None of us could stop smiling.


The kids came for a visit:
The thing I noticed the most when the kids walked in was that the peace was with them too.  They had sincere, calm, pleasant smiles.  Not over excited, obnoxious ones.  They too wanted to be quiet, hold her, look at her, reflect.  Especially Isaac.  "Don't you just love her, Isaac?  Do you feel that in your heart?" He said yes and I could tell he meant it.  They brought her some gifts, a "Thank Heaven For Little Girls" jumper to be brought home in and a soft pink pig that makes oinking sounds when you squeeze its sides. They wanted their pictures taken with her and kept their soft smiles all the while.  They didn't want to leave us and kept asking when we were coming home.  They were going to miss us, they said.  Isaac called us the next day about noon-ish and said, "When are you coming home?  You said you'd be home after lunch and we ate lunch like 5 minutes ago!!"  So cute!  We got home around 1:30pm.  He saw us drive up and must have been waiting at the window.  Georgie "checks" on Juliet constantly.  Every morning since we've been home she comes to my bed as soon as she wakes up to "check" on her and lay down with her.  So sweet.

Joey said to me the other night as she slept on his chest, "I just love her, I'm so glad we had her.  I'm smitten."  And that about sums up how we all feel.  Thank heaven for little girls;)  Thank heaven for Juliet!