So behind: January

Isaac said to me shortly after we brought Caleb home, "Mom, do sometimes you think about Caleb more than you think about me, Debbie, and Cosette?" It broke my heart a little but I answered truthfully and told him, "Yeah, buddy, sometimes I probably do." But then I told him I'd work on it and try harder. December was a trying month and we did think about Caleb more. It was difficult to have him on oxygen. And then I noticed as I was uploading pictures that I have NO pictures of Cosette and Isaac in January. NONE. And only a few of Debbie. Poor older kids! We do still love them!

This is still such a common sight in our house. Chad is an amazing dad and an amazing husband. I wrote about lack of sleep, but my lack of sleep is nothing to Chad's because he is the one who gets up with Caleb at night. I have a hard time sleeping anyway so Chad wants to let me sleep as much as I can so while I will wake up when Caleb is crying I am not the one who stays awake with him. So Chad gets the awesome man of the year award because he's up with the baby at night and then goes to school/work the next day and then comes home and gets 30 minutes to an hour nap in the evening and then does it all over again. I LOVE this man.

 Check out the hairy back!! He looked like an ape for a while with dark hair all over his upper body, down his back, on his arms, and even covering his ears. Thankfully it's not as bad now.

 I saw a lot of this face in January. Caleb is by far my fussiest baby. It's been not-so-fun. He does seem to be getting a little better now and we discovered gripe water too, he loves that stuff! And it seems to help calm him down.

 Caleb went off Oxygen January 17th and that was an exciting day. I realized just how much it was consuming our life the time when I left the house to go shopping and as I was walking along the sidewalk I instinctively swiped my hand in front of me to hold the cords out of the way so I wouldn't step on them. And I wasn't even holding Caleb, I was by myself. But he finally did get off the oxygen! It took another 4 weeks to get him off the apnea monitor, which was frustrating.

 Watching tv with Daddy.

 Debbie is so sweet, she offered to hold Caleb so I could get a nap one day and when I came out this is what I found. Both of the fast asleep.

 And, I decided to try my hand at taking some 'newborn' pictures. Not awesome but they do the job.

So behind: Christmas

We had to change Caleb's cheekies and took a minute to snap a few pictures. It changed his look a little bit.

He was not happy to get the cannula back on...

Notice the tiny Charlie Brown tree in the background. Hopefully by next Christmas we're in a place big enough to fit an actual tree!

 

 

 Cosette managed to fit her tent on it's side on her bed on the bottom of her and Debbie's bunk beds and then slept in it. I guess she wanted something different for the special occasion of Christmas Eve?

 They wanted to make sure Santa knew which stockings were theirs so they wrote their names on paper and put it on the stockings. Debbie made this one for Caleb.

 So, Santa had a near-miss. Cosette woke up at about 12:45 and saw that Santa had come so then she woke up Debbie. And while Debbie was able to go back to sleep within the hour Cosette was not. She was up for another 2 hours, it was so frustrating!

 We got Debbie the "Frozen" soundtrack and this is her face when she opened it. Ha ha, it's nice to know she loved it! (And check out Isaac in the background getting some air, I guess he was excited too...?) [And on a second side note: I'm writing this in February and the girls have played that CD every day since as loudly as I'll let them. Needless to say, the whole family has the whole CD memorized.]

Cosette got her American Girl doll from Grandma Westerson and she loves it.

 Chad checking out the sports cards Isaac got him for Christmas. The kids school has a fundraiser where they have a Santa's shop at school and you send money and the kids are able to buy gifts for the family while raising money for the school. I love it, everybody wins!

 This is how Caleb spent Christmas morning.

 Cosette sporting her new Doc McStuffins Dr coat we got her.

 Uncle Ben didn't want to hold Caleb but Grandma Rogers forced the issue. He was thrilled...

 Chad's favorite gift:

This is a funny story: Grandma and Grandpa Rogers got the girls each some arts and crafts and thoughtfully got them some containers to keep it all together in. Unfortunately this was the first gift Cosette opened. The look of confusion, disappointment, and bewilderment on her face was priceless. Here were her brother and sister opening fun gifts of books and toys and she gets an empty plastic container. I wish we had it on video, it really was priceless. She cried on my shoulder for a while but was a good sport when I asked her to show me how she felt when she opened the present so I could get a picture. Ha ha! Love this little girl.

A love letter

Dearest,
I miss you. So very much. Life seems all wrong without you, sometimes even unbearable. I cry all the time and snap and yell at those around me because you are all I think about. A few hours with you are not enough, I need you more than that. I miss your comfort and the way you help me face each day. I miss you Sleep, please come back to me.
Love forever,
Leah

So far behind: End of December

 Here's the scar on Caleb's foot, although as I write this (2 months later) it looks much better now.

 Isaac looks so classy in his new suit from Grandma Westerson. Very classy.

 Grandma Westerson came to visit!

 This is how we celebrate New Year's in our house.

Can't you just feel the excitement?