Twister Tales

Talk about family togetherness - our little family experienced an interesting first last night. We took cover during a tornado warning...in the coat closet!

When we first bought the house, it made me a little nervous that there was no basement. Every house I'd ever lived in had a basement...and a basement that was fun to hang out in at that. As a kid, I always thought it was pretty cool to get to stay up past my bedtime, watching TV or playing with my toys.

My boys will not think it's quite as cool. The only fun in their tornado hiding place will be Christmas decorations and winter coats. After last night, some of those might be disappearing to the garage too. That's because neither Daddy nor Keno could fit in our hiding space.

I will say that - sitting in the dark, watching both boys sleeping - I never felt more like a family. That's a nice romantic view of motherhood, snuggling my two sleeping angels. But what about when those "angels" grow ganglier and surlier and don't want to spend the night in the closet with their mom?

Until then, I can enjoy their little faces. Despite the midnight crying, tantrums, puking, and potty issues...I sure do love these boys:

Why? Why? Why? Why?

This post should be short and sweet...I'll just post a few pics of the boys and be on my merry way.

Why?

I guess didn't think there was much more to say since the last post. There were no big events or major firsts. I was hoping I might be able to report that Marshall slept through the night, but he's still waking up at least twice a night. It's at least getting a little better sleep-wise though.

Why?

The last few nights, he has gone 5 or so hours without eating. It's a start, but when he eats between 7 and 8, it makes it kind of hard for me to go to sleep right after that too.

Why?

Because it's still light outside here until 9:30! That didn't stop me from trying it the other night - and I got 4.5 hours of sleep in a row. A new record since Marshall was born! Thankfully, Nana and Papa were here to man him for a little bit of that time.

Why?

Um, because they're the best?!? Jason had a lot of after-school stuff this week, so they came to hang. It was nice for Marshall and me to have some company during the day, and Miles got to play hooky from school for a few days. Miles still went to school one day though.

Why?

Because he needs to be educated?

Why?

Because he has a lot of questions...and because he keeps asking WHY to everything!


Boy...BECAUSE I SAID SO! Did I really jusy say that? Sometimes I wonder why I don't go running for the hills like a crazy person.

Why?

Here's why!!

Smile!

Kentucky Derby Day gave us a special reason to smile this year - other than the fact that Jason finally won enough on the ponies to dig himself out of the hole of money he owed his bookie (Uncle David). The real reason we're smiling is...so is Marshall!



Aunt Hilary and Susan can testify as witnesses, so we're marking Derby Day as the day of Marshall's official "first smile." It must have been because of all the fun he was having at his cousin Gavin's house. We tried to get a picture of the three cousins...a little difficult, but here's what the best we could muster:



Mother's Day also gave me a few reasons to smile. In an early morning daze, I heard Miles come into our room as usual. I dozed off for a little while while Jason got up to help Miles in the bathroom, only to be awakened by Miles running up to the bedside and yelling, "Mommy! I'm sneaking out of here!" So much for the sneaking, but I did enjoy an extra hour of sleep, then flowers and a doughnut.

We had a bit of a rough morning trying to coordinate Grammy's breakfast and church with both boys, but the lovely afternoon we had made up for it. We returned for the second year to the art museum grounds to have a picnic and wander. I feel a Mother's Day tradition coming on (weather permitting).

No-Routine Routine

Marshall is now 5 weeks old, and he's getting lots of Mommy time. This is the first week I've been officially on my own during the day with the boy, now that Daddy is back at work and N&P have gone home. Thankfully, the days are easier than I remember them being when I was home with Miles. Not sure if it's the previous experience, Marshall's temperament, or just that I'm getting used to the hectic pace of two kids. Miles is going to "school" during the day, so I get a chance to spend some quality one-on-one time with Marshall that actually doesn't involve feeding him.

That said, our days are still mostly spent feeding and diapering, with some occasional sleeping bits if I'm lucky. This boy spends a lot of his day awake, but he's generally calm. He even chills in the bouncer while I take a shower. I'm sure that Jason is relieved to not have to come home to stanky mama like he did with Miles. I even made a trek out to the grocery store yesterday, and Marshall slept through the whole thing!

Sleeping at night still isn't quite happening as we'd like. Marshall is pretty good during the first part of the night - will go 3 to 3 1/2 hours before fussing. After that, there's no telling when he'll go back to sleep. He's spent a couple of nights in his car seat, which helps slightly, but there's usually still a good amount of whimpering in between feedings until 4 or 5am.

Marshall is starting to chunk up and is even outgrowing some of his newborn-sized clothes. We're still waiting for his official first smile. There have been a couple of times when I thought he was smiling at me, but I couldn't get him to repeat it. I think the rule is that you need more than one witness before officially writing the date down in the baby book, right? Here he is, looking very serious while reading the paper with Daddy:



Marshall took his first road trip this weekend to his Aunt KK's house. It was spur-of-the-moment, thanks to Miles. Nana and Papa had plans to go there from our house, so Nana mentioned to Miles, "We're going to go to Aunt KK's house." Miles then got the biggest smile on his face and said, "We are?!? YAY!!" Just as I was getting ready to tell him that that he couldn't go with them, I realized...why couldn't he? So, Miles made the trip with N&P, and Marshall came with us parents the next day. We thought he'd have no problems, but we had to make two unexpected stops on the way to calm him down. Luckily, the way home was much better and both boys slept most of the way. We had a very nice low-key weekend with the Kolbs, just kicking back at their house. Here we are at the restaurant in their neighborhood - deelish and walking distance!

Bunny Bloggin'

Miles spent a lot of the last few weeks asking "Is the Easter Bunny coming to town?" He even got to get his school pictures taken with a real bunny!

When the day finally came, we had a very nice, low-key Easter as a family of 4 + 3 (thanks to a visit from Uncle Craig, Nana, and Papa). The Easter Bunny came and filled up Miles' plastic eggs from last year, as he requested. He was especially impressed by the eggs that had coins for his piggy bank.



The Bunny even brought Marshall some goodies, and Miles helped to open his basket:




Marshall liked checking out the scene, too!

We have no cute church pictures, sadly. Not surpringly, we were running late and didn't have a chance to take pics before leaving. I made the rookie mistake (but I'm not a rookie!) of thinking we'd take pictures afterwards. Well, of course Marshall had a diaper disaster during the service and Miles wanted to eat blueberries and strawberries for lunch.

Grandpa Ron stopped by for a visit that afternoon and helped us look for the outside eggs. Miles was so excited every time he found an egg!





In other news, Marshall had his one-month doctor's appointment today - everything is perfect. Here are the stats:

• 8 pounds, 8 ounces (up to 25% from his birth weight of 10%).
  
  
• 21 1/2 inches (holding steady at 50%).
  
  
• 10% head measurement...same as at birth. Jason says Marshall gets that from him, since I was Big Head as a kid. Harumph.

Manic Month

Seriously? It's been almost a month since Marshall was born? Guess time really does fly when you're fighting bilirubin, bacteria, and big brother blow-ups.

To continue the trend of poorly-timed illnesses, Jason and I both came down with strep throat. Jason was first, and it came rather inconveniently on a day when Miles decided to go nap-free and not listen to anything either one of us said. It was also a momentous occasion in my life as a mother - the first time I spanked my child. So proud - should I write down the date in Miles' baby book? After that, I moved into "I don't care what you do" mode. For Miles, that meant taking the contents of our entire game closet and spreading them all over the loft (complete with "swimming" in the entire set of Trivial Pursuit cards dumped on the floor). It also involved unraveling an entire roll of toilet paper in the bathroom. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry when I walked in to that scene...I eventually chose to cry.

Thankfully, Grammy came that evening, long enough for Jason to go to urgent care and for Nana to make the emergency drive from Ohio. Thank God for grandmas - otherwise, I'd probably be writing this blog post from the Psych Ward.

The saving grace of all of this is that Marshall continues to be a great baby. During the day, he spends a lot of time awake checking out the world but can sleep through most noises (and we have a lot of loud noises!). We're still working on the night time sleeping though. He's usually pretty good the first half of the night - will sleep 3-4 hours until 1 or 2am - but then he wants to be awake for the rest of the evening after that. A bit challenging now that Jason has gone back to work. He's doing well at holding his head up - check out this bit of tummy time:





And some more overdue pics from Marshall's first month:













Hopefully things will be calmer now that we are illness-free and Nana and Papa are back to help out this week. I plan to post soon with Easter updates and stats from Marshall's doctors' appointment tomorrow.

Visitors Descending

Our new family is slowly settling into a semi-routine lately. That is, if you can call being up every 2 hours a routine. I think Marshall got used to his jaundice eating schedule and now won't slip into more reasonable increments. We even broke out the pacifier for the first time last night - a couple weeks earlier than we had hoped - but it did get us one glorious 3 hour stretch. Nevertheless, Marshall is proving to be a much more manageable baby that we're used to, which leaves us more time to attend to brother Miles' increasing need for attention.

Thankfully, Jason is still on paternity leave until Easter, and Miles still goes to day care every other day, which makes the days a little easier than the nights. We're doing well with just the four of us, but it was really nice to have so many visitors after Marshall was born...especially the visitors that provided Miles-sitting, cleaning, and cooking!

Grammy, Aunt KK, Nana, Papa, and Miles all came to see Marshall the day he was born. The next day, Uncle Craig came by, and so did Uncle David, Aunt Hilary, and Cousin Gavin - check out this first picture of the next generation of Kahl men:

The weekend we came home, Grandpa, Granny, and Aunt Ashley visited and took Miles downtown to the Women's Final Four festivities. Miles really had fun and only just yesterday let us wash off the tattoo he got there. We all watched the Butler game (Dawgs to the NCAA Finals!). Our family looked a bit different than when we watched the Dawgs' win to get to the Final Four (L).

Then, the aunts and uncles from Mommy's side descended upon us for a nice Sunday afternoon with Nana and Papa. Aunt Kat got some snuggle time with Marshall, while Uncle Vinny entertained Miles:

Aunt KK and Uncle Davy even took the day off from work to spend a special day with Miles at Monkey Joe's. He loved to "jump, jump, jump"!

Once Pops was healed enough to climb the stairs, he and Nana "moved back in" and took care of us wonderfully as usual. Grammy also continues to make her weekly visits to help us out too. We're so lucky to have our extended family! Miles especially loved having everyone come, just to visit him and congratulate him on being a big brother. ;-)