Mom and MM

Today is my first day alone with Mary Martin! After a long, long, rainy Sunday where James was stir crazy from being inside all day, James is off to day care and dad is at work today. So it is just me and MM. So far we have had an uneventful day. After delivering the boys, MM ate again and then we both got baths and dressed. And now we are all dressed up with no place to go... I am going to try and take it easy the next couple of days and not get too busy yet. Now that my grandma help has left, I am now getting up with MM at night by myself. This is not too bad so far. Mary Martin continues to be a wonderful baby - very easy going (knocking on wood as I type this). After a bottle at 10:30 or 11, she sleeps about 4 hours, needs a bottle, goes back to sleep and sleeps until 6 or so. So she only needs one "night" feeding and it is not that bad. We'll see how long this continues.

We may try and run an errand or two later just to get out. We'll see. Jim is encouraging me to nap and who am I to argue with him.

I'll try and take a picture of the two of dressed with nowhere to go later on!

Mary Martin Thornton - 2 weeks old

Mary Martin is two weeks old today!! I thought y'all might enjoy a post about James first, but no. All you want is an update on Mary Martin. So here goes...

Mary Martin is a wonderful baby. She doesn't fuss much and has an easy disposition. Ways she is like James:

1. She tucks or folds her hands under her chin when she eats.
2. She has little smiles when she dreams sometimes.
3. She enjoys alone time. There are times that she wants to be put down and left alone with her thoughts.
4. Her eyes are deep, dark blue. It appears they will become dark green, then brown.
5. She has dark hair down her back and her little arms just like James did as this age.

Ways she is different from James:

1. She has MORE HAIR!
2. James fought sleep, screaming until he passed out. She just whines a little, not really screaming, but just whining for attention then passes out.
3. Her ears are different. Gee and Jim are telling me James' ears stick out more.
4. She doesn't nurse well. James took to nursing easily. Mary Martin is more dainty and it seems as if she will get all her mother's milk from a bottle.
5. She has narrow shoulders, not her dad and brother's broad shoulders.

We took Mary Martin for her newborn photos today and took the orange flowered chair with us so we would have some photos like James'. She was an angel during the shoot. She was asleep when we wanted her to be and awake when we needed her awake. I think they will be great. Stay tuned for those photos...

Update on James

So I know you all want to see new pictures of Mary Martin and hear how she is doing. I promise I will get to that in a few days. I am planning a two weeks old post... In the meantime, I thought I might send a few recent pictures of James and report on what he is up to.

Life for James has not changed much since his little sister arrived. We still have grandma help which means an additional playmate for James. So he is still getting plenty of attention at home. He sort of ignores Mary Martin until we tell him to tell Mary Martin good morning, for example, and then he does. He will kiss her when we ask him to. More often he will share his toys with her - gives her a Thomas train in her Moses basket or gives her a Thomas sticker from his sticker book. Notice the Thomas sticker on his head in the photo. James did "help" me wash Mary Martin the other day - we had to get her "all clean," he said.

Life is all about Thomas the Train and Curious George for James lately. He wants to play with his train table often throughout the day and wants someone to play with him. We watch a lot of Thomas and Curious George. He laughs out loud at George's antics, which makes mommy smile every time.

Things at his day care are going well, though he has been upset to go the last few mornings when grandmas are at home. The past few weeks his classroom has focused on a letter per week - first they did P, then M and then B. This week they are focused on Self Help - dressing oneself, getting their shoes on by themselves, etc. This works out great for us as we have another little one to dress as well.

James' other obsession lately is reading his nighttime books himself. He doesn't want someone to read them to him anymore, he wants to "read" them himself. This does two things. First, it avoids night-night time a little longer. It also allows James to make the story up as he goes.

Finally, James seems to have grown an inch in the past two weeks. I don't know if I was just so worried about my little girl lately that I didn't notice. More likely, I haven't given James his bath in a while (grandma job!) so I didn't have a chance to notice.

I promise an update on MM soon...

Mary Martin, come out and play!

In the final days leading to Mary Martin's arrival, we tried everything we could think of to hurry the process along. We even taught James to say "Mary Martin, come out and play! "

Well we are proud to report that Mary Martin has arrived and while not quite ready to play, she is quite adorable. She arrived last week on July 16th at 2:26 PM. I labored for about four hours and pushed for only 10 minutes. We were very blessed.

Mary Martin weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches long. She looks just like James did as a newborn but with more hair. She has lots and lots of hair which explains all of my heartburn during pregnancy.

I am attaching a few pictures including one of James as a newborn to see how similar they are!! James is the final photo with the white hat.

July 4th and trip to Memphis

So James got to go stay with Gee and Grandaddy for a week in Memphis. They said he had a great time but you can judge from the pictures. The best part is that he was never without a friend to play with. Jim's cousin Jennifer and her two sons were in Memphis and other cousins who have a pool and Thomas trains!!!!!!!!!!!! Our obsession with Thomas continues...

Also, for the Fourth of July we went to eat dinner at Aunt Kelly's house. At one point James and Spencer were burying Kelly's golden retriever Hailey with pine straw! Anyway, the evening highlight was definitely watermelon slices. Is there anything better than watermelon juice dripping down your chin? The boys certainly enjoyed it!

Wrestling with Uncle Jim...

So one night a couple of weeks ago, Michael and Kelly, Spencer and Madeline came down to visit. We ordered pizza and just hung out. The boys got to have wrestling time with Daddy/Uncle Jim - which they thought was great fun. And Aunt Kelly and I tried to take a picture of all three of the kids - with mixed results. See for yourself. The boys look cute and so does Madeline. Maybe we should have gotten the boppie to prop her up better. Oh well - we'll try again when all four kids are here!!!!! Because then it will be easier I am sure...

Some random shots

Here are couple of random shots from the past couple of weeks. First a shot of birthday cookies... I wanted slice and bake cookies for my birthday and we put candles in them so James to could blow them out. The next day when I asked him if he wanted a cookie he went and got the candles out. He was ready to sing again!


Then a father's day shot of Jim and James. Jim got two boxes of raisinettes to symbolize the new Blu Ray player he got recently. James thought the raisinettes were the best present of all.




Finally, we had a family trip to the zoo where James got to drink milk from a carton - he thought it was great fun. He kept saying Yummy Milk!