Brown has a sister!

Well, Brown is almost 2 years old. Thinking back to the roller coaster ride of 2 winters ago in Utah...from first holding this boy attached to tubes and monitors...to flying him home to Chattanooga...to night time feedings...to preoccupations with fans, clocks, trucks, water...ER visits...fun in the water...running with the stroller...camping in below freezing weather...diapers in the middle of the night...diapers in the middle of the night while camping in freezing weather... etc. Most parents will have been through many similar experiences which is just all part of raising a child. And though we have had a false start or two, we are about to do it again. As we enter this new phase in our family life, we think back on all the prayers and help that we have received from family and friends and are most grateful. Thank you.

In some ways, we all live at the center of our own little universe. The world in some ways does seem like it should revolve around us. Learning that this is not the case is part of growing up, and stepping into our roles as individuals. Brown is to begin a crash course in this form of study. His world will have to make room for another child. When someone asks about the baby (as still happens), they will likely be referring to the new baby, and not to the almost 2 year old! This brings emotions to the surface for me even as I type this today. How in the world will we have room in our hearts for another child when our love for this child threatens to burst the bounds of our love even now?

Have we learned anything as parents? I hope so, but if we felt inadequate for one child, we feel twice as inadequate for 2 children. We are approaching this second child with some degree of fear and trepidation. Our prayer continues to be that we will continue to be equipped sufficiently for the situation that presents itself.

We are all about to find out. Please join Brown in welcoming his new little sister, Joseay Rebekah, to our family. The adventure continues.

Chris has posted a birth announcement at http://www.joseay.com/ and we will be continuing to blog about Brown, Joseay, family and life at http://chattanoogachaffins.blogspot.com/

This will be our last post at this blog. It's been fun. Thanks for following Brown's life, and we can't wait to share more ridiculous stories about Brown and Joseay on our new family blog.

What can Brown do for you

Well after a night of revelry and sugar (not really- in the house by 9 and no sugar for the Brown), my family seems to be taking advantage of the time change. I think Chris and Brown both think that we gained 3 hours rather than 1 as they are still snoozing away. As you can see, we dressed our little 22 month old as a delivery man though getting him to wear a hat is still just about impossible and the great little trick or treating bag made out of a UPS mailing package that we fashioned for him, there was not a chance that he was going to carry it. Anyway, we had great fun running around playing and barging in on our friends and family for the evening - thanks for your hospitality!

Blessings

Just to state the obvious, we all know our kids are blessings and only in retrospect can we really appreciated the timing of kids coming into our lives. Certainly at the time it may not seem like “the right time” to have a kid but the saying is true in that it is never the right time. Needless to say as well, Brown has been a huge blessing in our lives the past 22 months and we have soaked up each moment as best we could. But in the past 10 days or so being back home with all that has transpired in our lives, we have clung to him like never before. We have thanked God for having him in our house at this specific time. After experiencing years of having a childless house, we know first hand the longing and frustration that that can bring when you wish for it to be otherwise. And when unexpected events come along, it is with great love that we embrace our son and celebrate what we have as a family. For those who we have not yet been able to talk to, we had hoped to adopt another child last week, but these efforts were unsuccessful. To say the experience was disappointing is like saying the Titanic took on some water. This is not the time to go into it, though if you want to hear about what specifically happened and how we are moving forward, please give us a call. But to say it briefly, our hearts have been broken. If we had to return to a childless house this month, I don’t want to say we couldn’t have handled it, but it would have been immeasurably harder. Thank you God for your blessings and our prayer is for those individuals and families who today are dealing with broken dreams. Keep us mindful of our blessings and show us how best to offer comfort.

The Beach!

As any parent knows, seeing your kid really enjoy the beach for the first time is so fun for some reason. I have no idea why. But it is great. As my friend Anna said, you just have to embrace the sand. It is everywhere. And it doesn't bother Brown, so I have to try and not let it bother me. As he ran down the beach (or toddled quickly) yesterday, he wiped out face first several times and ate mouthfuls of sand. It would slow him down for only a minute while he waited me to scoop it out of his mouth with my finger as best I could, and then he would stand up and take off again. I can't figure out how he kept his eyes open with grains of sand hanging off of every eye lash. It looked painful, but again, it didn't bother him, so I tried to let it go. Every bite of food he ate on the beach had at least a tablespoon of sand on it, and again, he didn't care. So I tried not to. It's harder than it sounds.

Destin is absolutely gorgeous this time of year. The water is warm, but the air is a perfect 80-85 degrees. Brown is having a great time being led around by his older cousins as they try to teach him the ways of the beach. Digging holes, chasing sea gulls, splashing in the waves, etc. We are having a blast watching him.

On the way down here a couple of days ago, we got the call that Joseay's birth mom was having contractions and was at the hospital. It turned out to be a false alarm, but we are waiting for the call. Any day... Brown's little sister is going to arrive on the scene. And he's not gonna know what hit him! :) It is bitter sweet. We are having so much fun with him, and we know Joseay will make it even sweeter, but it is hard to imagine. Where will the time come from... and the heart's capacity to love another little human being this much? Hard to imagine. But I hear it happens all the time.

Ode to Poop

We have been parents now for about 2 years and have been through some of the typical experiences of these years. Night feedings, colds, bumps on the head, phases of food throwing. And did I mention diaper changes? A quick google search tells me that during the first year, babies go through somewhere in the neighborhood of 2500 to more than 3000 diapers. That’s a few. It is sort of a hazing ritual you have to go through to join the parent club. The loss of sleep is just bonus.

But what the number 3000 does not tell you is the tremendous variety of diapers that you will change during these years. Of course the easy one is the wet diaper. That is one that doesn’t even seem like a diaper change. You can do that one in your sleep. Literally. The only other good diaper is the one that you think is going to be really poopy because he has been smelly for about a half an hour. You finally get a chance to change the diaper and after getting the wipes, the clean diaper, the mat to change him on, and a facemask (not really though I have thought about it), you open the diaper to find nothing. Wow. What a relief. Of course the relief is short lived. Where there is smoke, there will be fire!

But once you get into the true poopy diaper, then the fun begins. The most dreaded is the up-the-back-while-in-the-carseat poop. This one is particularly onerous when you don’t discover it until arriving at your destination. The only cure for this is full body bath which never seems to be an option when this happens. The car seat cover must be washed also which is hard to do on a road trip. Fortunately, we have only had this situation a couple of times.

This post has grown way too detailed so I will only mention the other varietals by name. The run of the mill soft playdo doo. The dripping out of the diaper diarrhea. The walking around naked nugget on the driveway/deck. The hard as rock marble. The liquid. The no smell surpise. The normal poo but left on way too long so it is hard to get off poo. Need I continue?

I say all this to say, we are not poop neophytes. We have endured our share of diaper time. I thought we were experienced. But yesterday, I walked in to get The Brown after a nap, and as soon as I opened the door, I knew one of two things had happened. We had trapped a dead armadillo in the attic (unlikely in Chattanooga) or we had just discovered a new level of smelly poop. I turned around to request back up. She (a.k.a. backup, aka wife) looked as me somewhat doubtfully. I said, come see/smell for yourself. After she had satisfied herself that this was indeed a new level, she said, “oh, no, the pesto.” What? Turns out, Brown had decided to major in pesto the previous day. Lots of pesto.

After double bagging this specimen and rushing it outdoors, a sense of normal odor began to return to our house. However, twice more during the remainder of the day, this ghost of pesto past returned to give freely of its smell. Brown has now been asleep for the night and is only now beginning to wake up. I am all nerves. Will this Pesto Poop, this Granddaddy of Nasal Annoyance, this Most Feared Fecal Fountain return to haunt us yet again today? Only time will tell. But we have now learned 2 more lessons in our parenting. Never underestimate the power of the poo. And never, no matter how tempting or how much he begs for it. Never give the Brown pesto before a long car ride. Trust me. I am a certified poop professional.

Virginia

The Brown and Chris are returning today from a trip to Charlottesville to visit with many a friend there. Just in the last year, we have had several friends relocate there, so before baby Joseay comes to invade our family with extra love and diaper changes, Chris decided she should mosey on up to UVA town and tell everyone hello. I am sure she will have lots of stories and pictures to post, but I will leave that for when she returns and recovers. But it sounds like Brown has been a champ, dealing with plane flights, new people, disrupted nap schedules and having fun to boot.

Several people have commented that Brown is not a baby anymore but looks like a little boy. As parents, I think we are the last to see our kids growing up, often thinking of them several months (at this stage) or years (teenage years) behind from where their abilities and thinking currently lie. He will be running along (do toddlers ever walk?) and come to a stair. In the past, he usually gets down on all fours and crawls down/up. But now he is just starting to take them in stride. When I seem him do this, I expect a skinned knee. But most of the time, he is negotiating these things well. He has gotten very good with sign language (more, help, milk, food, etc), so much so that it is hard to get him to try to talk. But I am sure that will happen soon enough so that we will soon be fondly remembering the quiet days. But he is no longer and infant. We are still asked quite frequently about how the baby is doing, and it is an interesting quandary to be in as to know if they are asking about Brown or Joseay. It will soon be clear who is the baby and who is the boy in the house. 38 days until the due date. Babies always come on their due date, right?

Cousin Andrew's 5th Birthday Party

We just got back from a fun afternoon with family birthday celebrations. Cousin Andrew turned 5, and Uncle Brian turned... in his 30s somewhere.

I had fun snapping a few pictures at the playground, and then of Brown playing with the legos and trucks at Andrew's house. Unfamiliar toys rock!

Off to conquer the playground...

Hmmmm... which should I do first? The slide or the swings?


The slide!


Thanks, Cousin Sarah... these are big kid swings.


And now to the legos!




Ummmm... I need a basket, please. Too many good trucks to choose from.



Shocking, I know. Dad is kissing me again. Sheeeesh!