Florida

Believe it or not, we just returned home from vacation in Florida with our 22-month and 7-week old boys. Before you think we are too crazy, this trip was well in the works when Miles was just a twinkle in our eyes. Once we knew about Miles coming to join our family, we decided we would brave it and try to do the family vacation with him. And I tell you what, all things considered, we were blessed with little miracles all along the way that made the vacation well worth it! God is so good!

In general, I would tell people that it is not wise to travel with little ones. However, with amazing family members to help, we had a good trip!

Cooper enjoyed the water and the sand. When he first went over the hill and saw the ocean, his jaw dropped. He was in awe. It was very cute. He enjoyed the water and the sand very much!















Miles didn't have much time on the beach. He did, however, have one bath in the swimming pool and one bath in a salad bowl. I think he was pretty concerned about the experience...












And as it turns out, yes, we are crazy.

Lunch Time Sing-A-Long

Over the past few days, Cooper has blessed us with some great video. Today over lunch, we captured pieces of 'old Macdonald had a farm' and the Veggie Tales theme song. Without further a due...

4th of July Weekend

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. Nate had Friday off so we were able to spend a three-day weekend together at home. I don't even think we left Bolivar - it was wonderful to be all together without much of a schedule or 'to do' list.

Cooper experienced his first real fire crackers. We thought, prior to the big display in the evening, we'd purchase a few small fire crackers to light off at the house to see how things go. The fireworks in the evening are very loud so we thought a few small ones would be a good indication of how things would go. Evidently we chose the wrong place to buy fireworks because it seems the first several we tried didn't work. However, when we did find one that worked, it wasn't pretty. He watched as the tank drove around but then when it finally stopped and gave a light crack, he cried like there was no tomorrow. We have video but thought it wouldn't be quite right to post it - it's so sad! Needless to say, Cooper and Miles went to bed BEFORE the evening display.

We spent much of Sunday enjoying the Wimbledon finals, swinging in the back yard, taking a few family walks, etc. Cooper became pretty talkative on Sunday afternoon so we were able to catch him counting and saying the alphabet. You may have to listen closely as he wasn't especially loud. The occasional '1,2,3 Blastoff!' gives an extra touch...

Miles isn't talking, running marathons, etc. yet, but we thought we'd post a short video of him looking around, doing the 6-week-old thing.

Smiles

One of the best rewards of being a dad is experiencing smiles from our children. Miles seems to have known just what we needed this week as he gave us his first big cheese. Granted, his smiles are potential coincidences, but we will take what we can get. It's amazing to think that Miles is now six weeks old and growing like crazy. I believe he has gained nearly one pound every week and seems to have grown several inches as well. I'm not sure this is the case, but he is really getting big. When I returned from New Jersey earlier this week, it was like coming home to two new boys.

With the extended holiday weekend, our family is staying in town and keeping a pretty low-key weekend. So far we've spent been in the garden, played ping-pong, baked brownies and have spent several hours in Coopers new swing in the backyard. SBU hosts the city fireworks every year and we have a great view from our front yard. While we will probably end up at home to watch the show, we do plan to walk over and eat dinner, (or homeade icecream!) socialize and enjoy our friends who will join us.

Happy 4th of July!

The Daily Grind

If you're checking regularly, you've noticed we haven't blogged for several days. I think if we had to label the past few days, it would read...survival. We are so blessed to have two little boys who have been so healthy. But, poor little Miles is just not a healthy sleeper! With my going back to work full time and Carey adjusting to being home, it's been a bit of a circus. But, the good news is, Carey is able to get some rest in the afternoon and we have a wonderful friend who is taking Cooper in the afternoons a few times a week to assist in the adjustment.

My travel will begin picking up again in the next few weeks and the schedule is already getting pretty full. In the next six or so weeks, I will likely be in Texas, Connecticut, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. This will be another adjustment for our family so please keep our family in your prayers.

Last weekend, Dave and Beth came down for a quick, weekend visit. It was great to spend more time with family and we had a nice weekend to spend plenty of time outside. With Grandpa H and Bugs came some new bubbles - a favorite of Cooper's outdoor activities.

The end of vacation is near

It's now been nearly two weeks since the arrival of baby Miles.

On Saturday, the Colby Bethells (mom, dad and Lauren) arrived in Bolivar and have spent the last couple days with us. We've had a great time and have enjoyed the company. Cooper has especially enjoyed playing with Aunt Lauren. She has the teenage energy to keep up with him, but I think even Lauren is getting a bit tired. Mom and Dad decided to bring a tent to sleep in to keep the living room a little less busy. Cooper, in turn, loves the tent and bouncing around on the air mattresses has been a highlight. Grandpa has threatened to have Cooper stay the night in the tent, but we decided we'd wait for a day when Grandpa and Grandma can have him for the entire day after...

It has rained much of the night and I believe it's scheduled to continue for the next few days. So, we've decided to have a ping-pong tourney in the garage to compensate for the rainy weather outside. To ensure the bracket is fair and I have good shot at winning, I think I will match up against Cooper in round 1.

The girls, plus Miles, are headed to The Tea Garden for lunch and the boys are headed to El Rodeo for a more manly lunch. For those who don't know the Tea Garden, if you don't have pink or flowers in your 'outfit', it's not the place for you. I personally enjoy eating there, but the few times I have, I'm generally the only guy in the place.

Tomorrow brings another change for the Bethell family - I go back to the office. I've been working off and on, but I need to get back full-time. Carey and I have been experimenting with different ways to manage the babies while alone, but tomorrow will be the real test. Please continue to pray for an easy transition for both of us, as it's been great to be together during the days and nights.

Saddle Up

With most pregnant mums, I believe the 'nesting' phase usually happens prior to delivery of the new baby. Maybe it's the fact that our house is usually pretty clean, or that Miles came a bit early, but Carey has officially began to 'nest'. For Carey, it's really about cleaning. It's purging. While I wouldn't call Carey a collector, throwing things away just hasn't been her style. For me, I usually throw first, ask questions later. However, with Carey's latest phase of organizing and purging, I have even found myself saying 'are you sure you want to throw that away?'. Needless to say, the house and insides of every cabinet are sparkling. But that leads to a funny story.

While cleaning some of the lower cabinets in the kitchen, Carey was, hands and knees on the floor, calculating what was next. However, Cooper was one step ahead. Lately, Cooper recognizes anyone on the floor as a potential riding object and climbs on. So in this case, he runs over to the unsuspecting Carey (and does so with tractors in each hand), jumps on her back and proudly yells "COWBOY!". While we have given many pony rides around the house, this was a first. After his announcement, he quickly jumped off and turned to playing tractors in the living room. This will be a fun memory we share in the near term...but I'm sure many more will soon replace it!

Dancing to the Alphabet

It seems the video camera is never in the right place at the right time. However, we did catch a brief moment, no pun intended, with Cooper dancing to his 'Fridge Phonics' alphabet set. It's a short clip, but this is a glimpse of life with our little dancing bean.

It's been a few days since our last post so here is an update on the family.

Maggie - our 4-year-old Bulldog baby has an ear infection. Unlike the controversy on treating ear infections in our human babies, Maggie gets drugs for hers (for anyone who cares, her's is bacterial). It's truly amazing what we spend to keep all 50 pounds of her snore-like-a-freight-train-while-I'm-sleeping healthy. Other than the ear infection, she spends most of her time sleeping on the cold tile, air conditioning vent or taking in the sun on the back deck.

Cooper - Our surfer-hair 20 month old seems to be taking the new baby addition in strides. I think he finally has the concept that baby Miles is here to stay. So far, he has been pretty tender-hearted with Miles and is ready to show Miles how his toys, especially his trains (Thomas the Train trains in particular), work. To help ease the transition of Carey spending a lot of time with Miles during his regular feedings, Carey has several special bags of toys / activities just for feeding times (thanks Becky and Jenn for the contents of the bags). When we are not all together as a family, Cooper an I are either playing trains, playing tractors, going for walks on his tricycle, or playing golf. Cooper woke up this morning begging to go to the golf course, ride in the cart and see Charlie, one of the local homeowner’s dogs who walks the course looking for golfers to give a bit of affection. Charlie, the lawn mowers, and the many airplanes the take off and land near by are the highlight of the golf course trips.

Miles – Life seems to be pretty good for this little man. He’s coming on seven days old and is on a pretty good eating and sleeping schedule. Right now, we are generally getting up two times a night as he is sleeping an average of about four hours between feedings. During the day, he seems to have a bit of trouble staying awake. We are amazed that he sleeps at night considering the sleep he gets during the day. Every day we see more of his eyes; I think odds are pretty high for really dark eyes.

Carey and Nate – we both seem to be doing pretty well. With all of our guests gone, we are finding our own schedules with the boys, figuring out what works and what doesn’t. For once in the past several years, we can sleep in past 5am! We’ve been waking up just before Cooper and Miles get up at 7am to ensure we get plenty of rest. Speaking of rest, Carey has been pretty rest-less during the day. She has been feeling so great she’s ready to tackle all kinds of projects in and out of the house. For those who know Carey, this probably doesn’t surprise you. It may not also surprise you to know that she is only a few pounds away from her pre-pregnancy weight. I guess all that walking has paid off – I’ve calculated that Carey walked nearly 1000 miles during this pregnancy. She’s amazing.