A big brother with his little sister.

I noticed that I don't have a lot of pictures of Maes and Mikah...the truth is, I'm trying to take more pictures period.

But it seems like she is more interested in her own world of school and fake colored hair. She showed Mikah her baby doll today and then worked on her home work.
She is an amazing big sister that helps get diapers and will hold Mikah very well for me.
She can hold Mikah and eat a whole bowl of frozen berries. Such a multi tasker (she'll make a great Mom one day).

Jake on the other hand is in LOVE with his sister. He loves to hold her (until she gets to heavy- and then I have to be on guard so he does not plop her down too hard).
He wants to hold her all of the time it seems..sometimes his attention span is longer, like this morning.
He held her and said she was a "cutie" (he says that almost every time she is in his arms).
Then while I was in the bath he sang her some made up songs.
He also likes to sing "itsy bitsy spider" to her.
Such a sweetheart... until things don't go his way!

This is where things start getting hard for me.
He loves Mikah and wants to hold her constantly... and touch her, and play with her. (he even had a blanket over her head as they were playing "hide and seek". )
But he does not want to wash his hands, does not want others to hold her and does not want to wait.

Here he is in one of his pouting sessions.
He has his big gun. He was being so difficult for some reason or another, and I'm sure it was past his bed time. I bribed him with it- saying he could sleep with it if he would just do what I asked (cannot remember what I asked of him, but it was important at that time).
As of now the gun has been taken away until Halloween (it is part of his costume) as is his little gun and various sticks.

Chicken Salad Baby

Soon after Mikah was born the gave me a menu from the cafeteria at the fancy new hospital in which we was born.
Happy to have my stomach back in the space it was intended to be in, I ordered a Chicken Salad Sandwich. I like Chicken Salad...but it is a hit and miss salad to order. Some places make them great and others..yuck. And there is no way to tell who might make a great one. My sister in law loves the salad served at the cafeteria of the High School where she works. Who knew?
Well, Banner Gateway does not have a yummy chicken salad sandwich.
So skip it.

On Tuesday my mom brought over some chicken salad for our lunch. She was out of Mayo so when it arrived it had chopped rotisserie chicken, onions, spices and celery. I added the mayo and a bit of pineapple and dried cranberries. Sprinkled with cashews, we ate it on shredded lettuce.

I have been feeling really loved. We have been set up to get meals every day this week and into next week. So here is what has been coming through our door.

My friend Jada from across the parking lot brought us dinner Tuesday night. She brought us dinner when Jake was born and it was amazing. So I was quite excited.
On Tuesday night she brought us
.....Chicken Salad Sandwiches.

I did not have the heart to tell her we had Chicken Salad for lunch.

But the disappointment of a repeat meal was not necessary. I already know that I could eat Mexican every single meal, but I did not know about the variety that could be found in Chicken Salad.

Jada said that her chicken salad was sort of boring... but I'd argue it was not. It was a simple salad on a buttery croissant. And it was SOOOOO gooooooooood! And she made a to die for apple pie. AND a huge salad. AND a fruit salad. There were quiet a few sandwiches and I was afraid that we would not finish them. But my kids happen to like chicken salad sandwiches. Well, one ate the salad and the other ate the croissant (with extra butter added). They were gone by morning. And Jake demanded more croissants.
So...

On Wednesday I told Nate we would have to buy croissants for our Jake.

Then, that evening my friend Jen came by with dinner. She is a great baker and we love her treats. She sat down and said.
"I brought you Chicken Salad."
I laughed. I had to tell her about all the chicken salad. She thought we should dress Mikah up a a chicken, as she is the chicken salad baby. She also said that she had been feeling so original to bring Chicken Salad, as she thought maybe other's were bringing pasta.

She brought a whole box of croissants. Perfect for Jake. And her salad was like none other that I had tasted. It was a combo of chicken and egg salad and very, very tasty. She had told me earlier that growing up her mom used to make egg salad sandwich for long road trips. This made me laugh. This was yummy chicken salad too. She also brought kettle chips, baby carrots and a delish rice krispy treat with marshmallows and melted candy baked on top!

On a side note:
I'm beginning to believe that there is a conspiracy to not allow me to loose my baby weight by Christmas.

Tonight, we had another meal on the way. I was curious to see what it would be. The Johnson family brought us by a delightful fresh...

CHICKEN...









NOODLE SOUP.


It was completely home made and very light, with some nice garlic bread and fresh fruit kebabs. It complemented the left over half chicken salad sandwich on a buttery croissant very well that I added to the meal!

Mikah Lea Garner

Welcome

Mikah Lea Garner
September 27th 2009
11:13 am
7lbs 8 oz
21 inches

Mommy holding Mikah for the first time..but only for a second.
Holding her again and showing off the very unexpected head of hair.
Mikah and Daddy in the hospital before going home.
All 3 Garner kids at the house. Because of flu season the kids were not allowed in the Hospital. I was sad that they would not get to see her right away, but the nurses wheeled us to a room where the kids could look at her through a window from the parking lot...the very hot parking lot. They liked playing with toys in the lobby though. And he decided that he does lover her.
He even wiped her bum when we changed her diaper. It was just a pee pee diaper but he had to use 2 wipes!


Each baby is different and after laboring for about 14 hours at home, with contractions that were between 2 and 4 minutes apart, but not too painful, we decided to head to the hospital. On the ride there they got decidedly worse and I was almost 6cm upon arrival.
Naturally, I asked for my epidural as soon as I was admitted. I've never had any problems with them before, but this time half of my face went numb and my left eye was droopy, I was light headed and had a kink in my neck. And I could still feel some pain! They lowered my dose and gave me narcotics. (Those make you itch after wards!)
I had to push a little longer with Mikah, as her head was turned to the side. In addition, she had "pooped" in utero, so she was covered in merconium when she was born. They said it was "mild"...I wonder how bad it looks if it is serious!
We are all home now and looking forward to spending time with our new family member and having Nate off for 2 whole weeks!
(I need to make my list of things I need him to do!- and the kids will enjoy some special activities with just daddy.)

How a baby gets out of their Mom's Tummy.

Although Jake has mentioned before that he will throw the baby in the trash and that I am only his Mommy, he has been anxious for her to get here the past few days and even says he loves her. He also loves me and Maesyn but not Daddy, he says that Daddy is a meaner. Hmmm.
He still wonders if she has a stick so she can get out, and after explaining that she does not have a stick he is more than willing to get a stick so he can get her out for us.
He offered this morning to run outside and get a stick so he could get her out right then.

This was the scene at our house this evening.. Jake just cannot wait for her:
Prepping the area. Where to "dig" and squishing things around.
Getting Ready. Maes is assisting...or just observing. She is more rational about this whole thing, but also wondered if she could take 6 weeks off of school when the baby is born because I would take 6 weeks off of work!
The dig. I think Jake really thought that he was going to dig her out. When he first did this he pushed really hard into the side of my tummy. Nate told him to stop because he could hurt me and the baby..like "poke her in the eye". So then he pointed to different areas of my tummy to dig and asked if that was where her eye was. He decided that the belly button would be a good place.