Throwback Thursday: Home from the Hospital.

So today Matt's brother and sister-in-law are bringing their second child home from the hospital.  We talked to them for awhile last night about the logistics of all of it.  It brought back a whole slew of memories.  So how about a Throwback Thursday Home from the Hospital style.

Here's Round 1 back in March of 2009:

I remember starting to go down the road of "I can't believe they are letting us take this baby home!" and Matt SHUTTING ME DOWN.  His take on it? "Yeah she's OUR kid.  Of course we are taking her home.  No one can care for her better than we can.  Period."  And that was it.  No more jitters.  Because he was completely right:

Then Round 2.  When I thought our girl would want to ride on my lap with me out of the hospital.  Yeah not so much:

She wanted to help push because she was a BIG GIRL.  That was pretty much her attitude from there on out.

We were also super worried that time about our dog.  She was pretty new to our family and kindof a crazy pooch:

The big introduction.  She was fine with him pretty quickly.

Round 3 was completely different.  We were outnumbered!  And I COULD NOT WAIT to get home.  The hospital stay - being on my own away from the other two and under the care of nurses who had AGENDAS - was awful.  We couldn't get out of their fast enough:

Run! Don't even stop for a picture just GET. ME. HOME.

The Dude did want to ride with me.  He wanted everything with me.  He was not so into being helpful or acknowledging his sibling at all:

The girl helping me give her new brother a bath while the dude sulks in the background.  Pretty perfect summary of the day.

He got over it eventually and now they are best of friends - they are literally racing cars together under my legs as I write this.  The dog introduction was very different this time around as well.  Tiny got dumped in the middle of the kitchen while we were unloading/taking care of the other two.  And then we were like oh, right.  Someone should have told the dog:

I think she sniffed him once and moved on with her life.  Babies aren't that interesting to dogs until they get in a high chair.  My biggest memory from that time, though was that sometime while I was in the hospital the girl took a huge chunk out of her hair.  It was BAD.  So I left my Tiny, hoped he wouldn't need to nurse in the hour I was gone, and took my daughter for her first haircut.  MILESTONES:

It was a good introduction into the world of trying to manage THREE.  So yeah.  Those first few days home - especially with other kids in the mix - are INTENSE.  Intense and kindof magical. 

We wish them well!

Throwback Thursday: Yosemite.

So!  Still with the not catching up on the blog.  Just when I thought things were back to rights after the holidays.... well... Snowdays!  and Colds!  and Friends on Netflix! (ahem) and STREP!  UGH.

I'll be there for you.... to binge watch while recovering from Strep Throat.

So I'll just punt and post a throwback Thursday.  See the other night we were reading a book about Volcanoes (boys at the library.  yeah).  And I told the kids that their dad and I hiked up a volcano once.  And they were SHOCKED.  So I got out the photo album from our trip to Lassen Volcanic.   They were SO SO into it!  To the point where the last couple of nights instead of books at bedtime they have requested "pictures from when you were in your 20's"  Sure.  Why not.

Us in Lassen in 2002.  SO YOUNG!

Also someone just summited Yosemite's Dawn Wall  and the park will celebrate it's 125th anniversary this year.  So this post is crazy relevant. 

And 22 is crazy young.

We went to Yosemite during the summer of 2002 when we were living in San Francisco.

Mmmmm mountains.  View of the Vernal and Nevada falls from Glacier point.

We were only there for a summer so we wanted to make the most out of our experience.  Meaning every weekend we went somewhere fantastic.  One weekend was Yosemite.  Lots of camping.  Lots of hiking.  Lots of this:

Seriously, 22 year old Matt, be careful.  We have awesome things ahead.

One of my favorite pictures of my husband to this day.

Most of these pictures are from the Mist trail hike.  It goes up past Vernal falls, past Nevada falls, to the base of Half Dome.

Then we hiked the panorama trail back down to the valley.

Nevada falls with half dome in the background.  Names I still remember 12 years later.

But what the kids were most interested in was the fact that we saw a bear:

"What did you do when you saw it?"  - our girl
"Fought it." - Matt
"REALLY????" - the kids who still don't quite get sarcasm.  Surprising being raised by us.

Hopefully some day we'll go back the rest of our party of 5 in tow.  Until then it's fun to be able to show the kids our past adventures.

"Mommy how come you didn't go anywhere cool like this in your '30's?"
*****HEAD EXPLODES*****

Throwback Thurs: Birth Announcements.

So!  I've been getting the birth announcement for our newest little guy ready (finally, AHEM) and I thought it would be fun to compare.  With each of the kids I did a similar photo shoot at almost exactly the same age.  And yet they look so different!  Check it out:

The Girl.  Born March 17, 2009. pic taken April 9, 2009

She was so scrawny!  My little bird.  But she already had the red hair!  Also notice how light her eyes are.

The Dude.  Born April 13, 2011.  Pic taken May 1, 2011:

So much hair!!!  And dark, dark eyes.

The Little Guy.  Born June 13, 2013.  Pic taken July 16, 2013

His hair looks reddish in photographs.  I suppose it's possible! No question he has brown eyes.

Super fun.  Amazing how different each baby is.  And just for fun a pic of all of them now taken at my Grandparents' 65th Wedding Anniversary party on July 14:

I couldn't resist dressing the boys in matching plaid.  Too cute to pass up.  The Girl, however, refused to even color coordinate with them.  Of course she did.

Throwback Thursday: Reading.

So.  I know that these themed-by-day posts are kindof a lame excuse for actual blogging.  I mean couldn't I just do this nonsense on Instagram or whatever?  But!  I'm trying to get the juices flowing again.  Trying to remember how to do this here blog thing.... 

Baby steps, right?

Anyways I took a photo of the kids today that just begged to be compared/contrasted with pictures from years past.  Observe:

It started with this:

"Reading" to her dog, Oct 2010.  So she was 19 months old.

Then it became this:

"Reading" to her baby brother, April 26, 2011.  So she was 25 months and the dude was 13 days old.

Then there was this:

"Reading" together, October 2011.  She's 2 and a half, he's 6 months old.

And now it's this:

Reading to her brothers (and an audience of stuffed animals), this morning, she's 4, the dude is 2, and the little guy is 5 weeks.

I love it! And I love how very close she is to actual reading.  Pretty soon that light bulb is going to go on and then there will be no stopping her....