One Month and Counting

Ms. Maggie is one month old.   Hard to believe.

In some ways, it seems like we just brought her home, though in the next moment it seems like an eternity ago that she arrived.

We're head over heels for her.   She's a sweet girl.   Sweeter in the daytime than in the evenings.   : )
Gassy and spitty around the "witching hour" and doesn't give us any chance to put her down (or get anything done).  
She's a good sport while we're out though.  Sleeps alot in the morning and early afternoon.   Shared a few smiles with us - whether they are from gas or genuine delight, I can't be sure.

She weighs around 9 pounds, or that is what we figure from weighing on our scale with her.

Brothers are all in love.   They are a little stir crazy - just not out of the house quite as much as before.    So we've witnessed some serious attitude especially from Mr. Jackson.   Cooper has actually been great.   Charlie, well, he is very stubborn lately.   And a little rough, too.  I have to really watch him with Maggie.  I'm afraid she might end up swallowing her pacifier when Charlie comes along and places forces it in her mouth.   But his heart is in the right place.  I think :)

So, first monthly photo shoot.   And, first time to wear a dress.   They are all too big.  

 Wheeeeee!

The giant wanted a chance to be in the picture.   Here he is, saying, "cheeeeese"

Seriously, he's a giant.  

Weighing in at 30+ pounds, he's barely 6 pounds behind big brother Cooper.

 

 Hard to believe that she still weighs less than Charlie when he was born.

I'm really excited to be posting this, because it's 8pm and she is actually napping.   Woohoo!   This might be the first time in a week or two or three that I haven't been holding her all evening.  
Speaking of, her crib and pack&play aren't getting much attention.  Like, none.   Well, actually the Pack&play is collecting a nice pile of shirts that need to be ironed.   And the crib is holding clean laundry that I haven't put away.  She sleeps in her bouncy seat, and I don't see an end to that trend in the near future.  Also sleeps well in her carseat.   And, best of all, in bed with us. 
Ah, well, I'm sure she will be in a crib one day. 

Surviving!

My mom was here for an entire week and I took ZERO pictures.   We had a great visit, and it was so nice having her here.   I'm on my own today ... and we are surviving!   Have two loads of laundry to do in this "quiet time" when maggie and charlie are actually sleeping at the same time.   The older boys are coloring at the table.   Anyway, instead of laundry, I thought it was about time to have a new post.   I'm sick of the bees ....

On Sunday, our neighborhood had a picnic lunch/petting zoo/balloon animals for everyone.   So, we walked down and the kids had a blast.   Here are a few pictures from the adventure....

 

 

 

The boys had a blast.  We came home and they took naps, well, some of them did, anyway...

Jackson helped me cook dinner.  

Sweet Maggie.  

She's doing well.   Unpredictable, but I guess that is the story with newborns.

  Who knows how long they might sleep for each "nap" so I try to do as much as I can with the boys while I am not holding her.

Charlie - waiting for someone to read to him.

He has been so interested in Maggie - wanting to label all of her body parts.   He keep poking her in the eyes though.  And he climbs on top of me while I am nursing Maggie.   He's trying to be sweet, which he is, but poor Maggie is going to get squished.

Life is going well.   Jackson is doing really well- like he never had surgery.  We have his checkup in a few weeks.  Maggie may have a rough morning, but then she does great in the afternoon.  She seems to be battling lots of burps and some spit up - but hopefully it will supside as she starts to grow a little.  She still wasn't quite up to her birthweight at 3 weeks old, but her pediatrician said it was okay ... we will just keep an eye on her.   She nurses all the time, and poops and pees every 5 seconds.

Speaking of, she just woke up...

I'm going to try and take some more pictures of all them this week.

Bzzzzzz

 

 On Friday evening, we all sat down for dinner at our kitchen table.   Cooper asked, "Hey mommy, what are all those things flying around the tree?"   I looked out the window, and quickly realized that the entire backyard was COVERED in bees.  The entire sky was full.  

Scary.

Then, it seemed like they started congregating around one of the magnolia trees.   Sure enough, after a while, they all landed on a branch.

 

 I figured it was hundreds.   Colin guessed thousands.

We called animal control ... already closed for the day.

Called the police department to see if they had someone that they could suggest.

No help.

With a little help from google, we found the number to a place called

Collin County Bee Keepers Association.

They were very helpful and gave us the name of Larry Parker.

He told us that they were probably settled in for the night, 

and that he would come over first thing in the morning.

 

 The next morning

  (after I had nightmares about the kids playing outside and getting stung hundreds of times), 

Larry the beekeeper showed up.  

He was extremely nice and decided that he would just cut the branch to move the hive into the box.

I was feeding maggie and the boys were eating breakfast.  I was also trying to take pictures.

 

 He moved the branch into the box.

 

 He sprayed them with sugar water so that they would be too busy licking themselves to notice that he was putting them in a box.

Can you see all the other bees flying around?

Creepy.

Turns out that he had chased this same hive about 3 days before on a street about 1 mile away from our house.   Or he assumes that is the same hive.   His guess was that a hive got disturbed or knocked down, so they were looking for a new home.  Or, a hive got too big, so the queen bee layed a "queen egg"" and the new queen and half the hive moved on to find a new home. 

Turns out we had around 8,000 - 10,000 bees.

All that were left were about 30 or so bees ...

They are still there  - hanging out on the tree.

But Larry the beekeeper says they will die in a few days, since there is no queen.

Or, they will move on.

The whole process was fascinating.   But, also terrifying.  I just keep thinking about how often the boys are playing outside while I am in the kitchen.   What if the bees had started swarming when they were out there?   Or they were already on a branch and got disturbed.  I should mention that they were only about 2-3 feet off the ground.

Luckily, the boys weren't outside, and we are hoping that is the only visit we get from bees... ever. 

We're looking forward to Larry bringing us some honey.

Easter

Easter was wonderful this year.  It was crazy with a new baby.   But great.

We dyed eggs, hunted eggs, ate alot of candy ...

Pictures ... not in any order ...

 

 New toothbrushes with all the candy from the Easter Bunny.

 

Made these peep rice krispie treats for Jackson's class.

Caught Cooper reading a story to Charlie on the stairs : )

Charlie's mouth was blue because when we gave him the little tablet to add to the vinegar/water, he thought it was candy and popped it in his mouth ...

 

 Most of the eggs were cracked from being dropped (or tossed) into the coffee mugs ...

 

The sweetest part of the entire weekend ... Colin was confirmed and recieved his first communion in the Catholic Church.   RCIA was a long process, and it means so much to me that Colin went through it all.   He can now fully participate in the mass.  It brought tears to my eyes watching him on the alter.  

God is good.

Happy Easter!

Just realizing I don't have any pictures of Ms. Maggie in this post.  

Next time ...

First Swim Lessons of the Year

The older boys woke up Saturday morning, just as excited as they did on Christmas morning.   They were in their suits and ready to go at least an hour early (we're never early in our house).

They could not wait to go see Coach Stephanie and go swimming.

They did so great.  Jackson didn't miss a beat.   Once Cooper got in, he swallowed some water and got a little nervous.   His bottom lip was sticking out, but he fought back the tears and tried everything.  It won't take long and he will be swimming independently.   It's so wonderful watching them in the water.  I love the pride on their faces!

Charlie can't start yet - unless I got in the water with him ... which isn't possible since I will have 3 others to watch while he would have class.   So, next year.

Farm Party

 The Saturday after Maggie was born, Colin took Cooper and Jackson to a birthday party for a friend of ours, Maddie.   I just loved seeing the pictures from the party - they had a great time - can't stop talking about it. 

 Baby chicks!

 

Milking the Cow

Heard Natural Science Museum

On Wednesday, Colin's dad and sister, Alison, came in town to meet Maggie.

We had a great time with them here.  On Thursday, we took the kids to the Heard Museum in McKinney.   It's only about 10 minutes away.

Jackson had preschool, so he missed ... but I kept telling myself that he got to go plenty of places before Cooper and Charlie were around.   

There are some things to see inside the museum, but the best part is just walking on some of the nature trails.

The weather was absolutely perfect.

 Cooper was so excited to go!

 

 Maggie was happy tucked in the sling.



It was time for her to nurse, so I just sat on a bench in the middle of the woods : )
And then she pooped, so I changed her on the bench too. 
I was just hoping she wasn't going to get too many mosquito bites.
She didn't.
I can just imagine doing the same with Jackson ... yeah right.
Maggie is going to be a "go with the flow" kind of girl.  
I doubt she will ever have any schedule to speak of between drop off and pick up for Kindergarten, preschool, speech, and other activities for the boys.

 Charlie and Pawpaw stuck together.

We walked for a long time.   Got to see plenty of turtles (they are lined up on a log if you look closely)

Lots and lots of snakes.

 Spotted a goose.

 By this point, Charlie's eyes started to close.   He's nodding off in this picture.

 Cooper got a free ride on his daddy's shoulders.

 And, ... Charlie was out.

 We had such a good time.   So nice to get some fresh air and a little exercise.