Warning: Shameless bragging about my kids

Boy, do I think I have cute kids.

Briton is doing great. ("Terrific" is the word used by the pediatrician. That is new for us. The first two didn't have the best start.)

We love having him around. And, um, the past two nights I have had to wake him up to eat at 3 am. Call me crazy (for waking him up). Or call him crazy (for sleeping through a perfectly good meal). I am not wanting to jinx myself because two of the first three nights he was home were not fun. He just wouldn't sleep so I am not going to underestimate his ability to pull an all-nighter again.

Briton has gotten a lot of attention the past week, but I sure can't forget about Abby. She is pretty fantastic. She amazes Mike and me with things she says.


Here are a few:

Mike arranged for Abby to be babysat a couple times this week by branch members so that Briton and I could get used to each other and so that I could take naps. At the house of a 21-month-old boy yesterday, she was riding a little trike and put an orange cone on her head. When the little boy said, "Hat!", Abby corrected him with "Helmet!"

This morning Abby was reading a book and I heard her say, "Book up down". I then watched her turn the book right side up. (In Kindergarten, we called that "concepts about print". Abby would've passed.)

We've only been here a month and a half and Abby will tell us the names of the grocery stores, point out the library and recognizes the street the church is on.

This is a wall in our house that has pictures of us as well as all of Abby's grandparents and great-grandparents. She can name them all (even the ones who she never met) and can tell you what state many of them live in!
Here's one more Abby-ism (a favorite of ours). Last night Abby was playing with her stickers. She came up to Mike and I and said, "Sticker go?" (That means "Where did the sticker go?") She started picking (really digging into) her nose and I got concerned. Then she said, "Sticker hiding." She told us a few times that the sticker was hiding before she was able to successfully dig it out. We laughed.

Incidentally, if you notice any missing "ooooooooo"s in this post, disregard. That key is sticking and it's kind of driving me nuts. (I think I caught most of them...)

A few more pictures of our house

The kitchen:I really like this wall in the kitchen/dining room. (It replaced an orange faux painted wall.) I am currently looking for the perfect picture to hang on it.
The living room:
Briton's room:
The plan is to put a shelf across the back wall at the level the color changes (and to put sheets in the crib:).

I might want your advice, but I am not sure

So Mike and I like the way we chose to spell our baby's name for various reasons. (That is why we chose it the way we did.)

This is the problem. A couple people have asked how to pronounce his name. That is totally OK. We knew when we chose to spell it with one "t" that some people would think it is pronounced like the ski resort (Brighton) instead of like the country (Britain). The correct pronunciation is the short vowel. It could be written as Briton, Britton, Britain. You get the picture. I know that spelling his name with two "t"s would eliminate confusion, but we like our way better.

This is my question, "Is my child going to go throughout his life being called by the wrong name?" When you first read his name, did you think Brighton or Britain (i.e. long vowel or short vowel)? I don't think that we'll change it but I am curious to know if you think that we have doomed him.

Incidentally, a person from Great Britain is a "Briton" so technically we aren't on the wrong track.

Are you sick of me posting daily? Life in the hospital and even recovery life at home lend itself to frequent postings I suppose:)

My baby has slept ALL day

He was awake for almost 2 hours from about 5-7 tonight (a record since he was born), but other than that: sleep, sleep, sleep. He and I are going to spend a cozy night at the hospital while dad and big sister sleep at home, then they'll come and get us in the morning.

We tried to do some family pictures tonight. I am sure that you can imagine how many we took to get a favorite...too bad I forgot to take Briton's binkie out for that one.

But here you can see his face!

We sure do adore his big sister:)

Welcome to the world!

Introducing:
Briton Michael Wessman
born 2-18-09 at 12:33 pm
8 lbs. 6 oz. 20" (so much bigger than his sisters)
We think that he is fabulously cute!

**posted from our "birthing room" 3 hours and 15 minutes after giving birth

Indulge me...

I think I'll post some pictures of what we've been doing around the house. There aren't many people around here I can show it to so I'll show it to you.

Big girl bedroom

Here is Abby's room:

When we closed, it looked like this.

We changed the color of the accent walls to match her bedspread and unpacked.
This is basically what we ended up with. I think it turned out pretty cute.


The baby's room is really cute, and all the furniture and painting is done, but I'll post pictures later when some of the finishing touches are up (wall stuff and, heaven forbid, a mattress in the crib).

The play room and front room

Here is the bonus room:We painted it "Peach Tickle". I love the color! (It is definitely not peach-y, but yellow. It's a great color for a play room - that doubles as a guest room.)



There are a few finishing touches (of course) that I need to add. I am going to have Mike cut out some bead board picture frames, spray paint them white and then scatter them throughout the room with fun pictures of the kids and family. I got the idea from the Brimley's great pictures in their living room (hope you don't mind guys).

Here is a really undramatic transformation. This is the front living room. We just got rid of the purple, and put the piano and a sofa table in it. (I like purple, but not for this room.)

I'll put baby pictures of the kids over the piano. Somewhere on the "to buy" list is a love seat or maybe a couple nice chairs to put in this room, but right now...just a piano.

By the way, baby brother is tentatively "scheduled" to arrive on Wednesday.

Missing...

...baby

Baby brother has not arrived yet. Due to the "prompt" arrival of both of the girls, we are a bit surprised, but Mike and I both arrived late so I suppose we deserve it.

...grandma

After 10 days, my mom left yesterday. We will all miss her a lot. She was so helpful and we loved the company. Abby was terribly disappointed when she realized she drove 90 minutes to the airport only to find out that grandma was getting on the plane alone.

...snow

So, the snow is missing, but we aren't really missing it. This picture was taken on Sunday. On Saturday, there were at least 8 or 9 inches of snow throughout the yard and big mounds along the sides where the shovels dropped it off. Yesterday was 58. Today is supposed to be 50 and it is raining so the snow is all gone. (I am not naive enough to not expect it to return.)
...binkie

She hasn't used the binkie at the house at all and seems to be OK.

In fact, yesterday we were walking through Ikea and I had to explain to her why she couldn't go into their playroom (because she doesn't wear big girl panties). We had a very nice installment of the ongoing what big girls do versus what babies do conversation. She volunteered that baby brother would need a binkie and it didn't seem to bother her that she doesn't have one.

She told me this morning that her binkies were at the hotel. I didn't lie to her, but I also didn't tell her where they really are.

There is a small problem though. According to my mom, who slept in the same room as Abby at the hotel, each morning at around 5 or 6 she'd wake up, find the binkie and go back to sleep. She is still waking up at that unsightly hour, but forgetting the fall back to sleep part. My mom was really nice and let Abby go into the room she was in and crawl in bed with her while Mike and I slept oblivious downstairs.

Grandma is gone, so Abby came down to our room "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" at 4:56 am. Mike let her climb in with him and as soon as she was asleep, he took her back upstairs. I can't complain at all because she slept until almost 9. I think she'll return to her great sleeping habits soon.

(I cannot complain. Abby is a fabulous sleeper even when she is waking up at 5 or 6.)

Conversation

Mike: Abby, what should we name your baby brother?

Abby: Uh, baby.

Mike: OK, well then, what should we call him?

Abby: The phone. (I assume this means we should call him on the phone.)

Mike: What is his phone number?

Abby: Phone book. (Do those actually still get used? Oh, wait, I still use the phone book - so 80s.)

Mike: So what name should we look for in the phone book?

Abby: Baby.

Hmmm...isn't this where we started?

FYI--I really want this baby to come soon. I want my mom to meet him! He isn't here yet. We'll see!

As if by magic

A few things have appeared here in DeWitt:

Talented painters
including my mom (who I've decided has single-handedly made it possible to move into this house)
A gorgeous "purple" (not exactly, but close) wall...along with some yellow, taupe, brown and soon to be green walls (and a mystery kitchen wall color - a mystery I would love to solve soon)
My car (Oh, how I love my car!)

A few things have disappeared:

Like this orange wall...(along with some others, but we actually kept the green bathroom walls)
and the for sale sign in front of the house that is now ours:)
Binkie (or dee-dee or bankie, whatever you like to call it), but not totally...the first couple days we were working at the house, binkie was accidentally left at the hotel and Abby took her naps pretty well so we might try a binkie-free house, but I haven't told her that yet because when baby brother arrives we might find it difficult to stick to it--we'll see--so far she has done pretty well--she is still getting it when she sleeps at the hotel
What has not appeared?
Baby brother, but soon, I am sure

A Child's Prayer

Abby is really good at praying all by herself. When she does, this is generally how it goes (without a ton of variation):

"Father, thank thee food. Bless food. Bless Leo. Name Christ. Amen.

Leo is my cousin's little preemie boy. I love how she prays for him.

A couple nights ago Abby was saying the dinner prayers and Mike decided to help her to mix it up a little bit. So he prompted her with things like, "Bless our family" and "Thank thee for our grandmas and grandpas."

I wasn't feeling super well at the time - just the 8+ months pregnant and lack of energy.

So, Mike also prompted Abby to say, "Bless mommy that she'll feel better." She said it, but then all concentration on the prayer was gone. She looked up and started asking - right during the prayer, "Mommy, OK? Mommy, OK?"

It was so cute. I think we finally did get her to finish the prayer, but the rest of the night, she'd come up to me and gently put her hand on my arm and ask, "Mommy, OK?"

Me (and baby brother)

Bonny asked in a recent comment how baby brother and I are doing. Nothing to exciting to report, but here's a little update...

As long as the little guy doesn't show up sometime in the next 5 hours (January 28th), this will be the farthest I have made it in a pregnancy. Hope was five weeks early and Abby was this early. (I think that makes 18 days.)

There is not a lot going on. We see the doctor every week--usually on Tuesdays, if you're interested to know that kind of thing. Dilating and effacing, so progress, yes.

We did, however, tell the doctor that as much as I'd rather not be pregnant, we really need to hold off at least until Friday because I'm not interested in having the house closing postponed (and I think I do need to show up to put my little initials on several trees worth of paper).

Holding off another week after that would be even better - moved into the house, new insurance kicked in, mom here to hang out with Abby, etc., etc.

***And for your reading enjoyment, please be advised that the Santa Fe is no longer in Salt Lake. I am not quite sure exactly where it is, but I trust that it is getting closer to here and farther from there!

An update for my grandma and others who'd like to read it...

I haven't been blogging a lot lately--didn't really feel that I had a whole lot to say, but then I found out that my grandma is checking the blog so I just had to update. (And I realized that there were a couple fun things we could write about:)

First things first, our Santa Fe is still in Salt Lake City. Enough said. You can imagine how we feel about that.

In other news...

Meet Sadie. She is the newest member of our family. We love her dearly. When you ask Abby what her name is, she'll tell you Sadie, but usually she is referred to as "baby". Baby goes places with us, takes naps (we must be quiet while she is sleeping) and most recently she has begun to need diaper changes. (I just need to intercept clean diapers being thrown away that Abby has worked on "changing".)Abby loves dad's key card from work. She'll pull on it from his belt as soon as we get out of the car after bringing him home.

(I was about to say as soon as he walks in the door, but that wouldn't be too accurate because by the time he walks in the door, we've already been together for a 1/2 hour because we pick him up every day because our Santa Fe is in SLC, but that, as you know, is another story.)

She calls the card his "one more time" because she is always asking if she can do it just "one more time". Now she gets to wear it on special occasions.Today some of our new friends from the branch invited us to go to the State Historical Museum. It turned out that today was MI statehood day and so they had some fun "extras" (like birthday cake) going on. Abby and I enjoyed ourselves.

A quilter in training...Yes, we can... (didn't I hear that sometime this week?)
Mom and Abby taking a trip through the country... Dancing to Motown (several of the record covers in the background were of Aretha Franklin - she wasn't wearing the hat)

Here are some randoms...

While we were moving:

• At one point we thought that the movers had packed in one of a zillion boxes the camera and the garage door openers. Our garage had no way of entering without the openers so we would have had some significant explaining to do to S & K. (We found them not in boxes.)
  

Here:

• The midwest (especially in the north) is cold. It was -9 this morning at 9AM. I have been assured that this is not the usual and won't last forever. (Tomorrow we are back in the 20s!) It hasn't been too bad because we don't leave too much. (We take Mike to and from work and run an errand or two on the way.)
• In Murray, we had one TV in the dungeon basement. (It wasn't really a dungeon, but we didn't hang out down there much.) Here in the hotel, we have three. Hmmm...it is a lot easier to watch TV that way.
• Here are a couple things that Abby has talked about today: dancing lessons with Kaley; Grandma Kaye is in Idaho; Grandpa Frank is in Utah; talk to grandpa and grandma (any of them:); Ke-bim (Kevin), Tami, Brooklyn, Isaac, Jack; talk to Lance. She talked to Tami, Kevin and Jack today and that was lots of fun! (If you were not included in Abby's list, rest assured that she has probably talked about you another day and will do so later. We've gone through several times what state everyone is in. She's quite smart with her U.S. geography!)
  

There:

• Our poor Santa Fe must feel abandoned. It is still sitting at the car shipping terminal in SLC!! "Due to weather issues" it hasn't been shipped even though we dropped it off to be shipped 2 weeks ago. Poor, poor Santa Fe. It looks like we will be a one car family for at least another week. At least we didn't have to drive it out here:)

This is the only picture of the Santa Fe I could find and I think this post needs a picture.

Can I throw in a comment about our Santa Fe issue? While I was on the phone with the auto shipping company to get the latest update, the nice lady on the phone was quite apologetic. She assured me that as soon as the weather gets better the truck will be on the way, but...then she threw in "But aren't we glad we aren't the people in the Hudson River?" Like the rest of the country, I think it is a miracle that the plane crash did not end in tragedy. It really is! But, I really don't see how that relates to my car still being in Salt Lake?!?

My Birthday

The plan on my birthday was to go out to lunch with my mom and grandma. When we got to grandma's house to pick her up, my dad's car (along with several others) was suspiciously in the driveway. It turned out my parents had invited all of the not at work relatives over to grandma's house for a birthday/bye-bye lunch. It was really nice - lots of female relatives (3 grandmas, all 3 sisters, a few aunts and several cousins) and a couple male relatives (but not my brother). It was very nice. Here are a couple pictures to show that I am really pregnant and that my face shows it:)

...with my sisters

...with my grandmas

Here is Abby with her cousins on my side. (As you can see, not all eyes were on the camera.)

Abby might miss this doll from Grandma's house as much as anything else.

That night some of us went to the U. gymnastics meet. It was a tough fight but they triumphed. We went to the new Murray Rubio's for dinner. (I am a bit bothered that the grand opening for a Rubio's less than a mile from my house had to be the day before I moved - even if it was on my birthday!)