5 a.m. Easter

The boys were super excited for Easter. 5 a.m. excited. We said goodbye to good sleep March 1st anyway...

COMFORT

Asher and Harrison love to amass whatever the favorite toys or books of the day are and sleep with them. They've even been wearing their Spiderman and Tiger costumes to bed OVER their pjs and with their boots.

They don't seem to mind being surrounded by pointy pokiness. In fact, the uncomfortableness issue isn't an issue. They prefer the comforting sense of being surrounded by what gives them happiness.

Not so wierd after all.

lookin' for a little powder

We had this big piece of cardboard in our house from, well, I don't know. Anyway, Harrison and Asher always make good use of such trash/treasure. They're like little sculptors who can see a masterpiece in a hunk of rock. We've had cardboard swords last for months before, and have many a time sledded down the bottom of the stairs on our very own cardboard sled. But this piece of cardboard was destined for something different- something more- like Vail, Park City, Big Sky... this cardboard was meant to see the slopes. Apparently, the plastic golf clubs were, too!

sweet baby

My friend, Mary, did these pictures for us. Lincoln was a dream for the shoot- except for peeing in Mom's face- but it's not like that's never happened before. He is, after all, baby boy #3.

He is the sweetest baby. He rarely cries, and when he does, it's more of a little fuss than an all out holler. He quiets almost instantly... what a gift of joy he is.

Harrison and Asher have truly attached to him. They're very protective. Asher's actually given a few people the evil eye at church and quietly, but firmly informed them "he's our baby" when they fawn over Lincoln. (We'll have to work on that one).

The big boys don't mind helping by getting diapers ready, etc. But of course, the favorite task is to get Lincoln to smile or "talk" to them. It's been four years since we had a baby... I'd almost forgotten how rewarding a "conversation" of coos with a six week old can be.





Showing off some neck muscles- and
a perfect baby bum.

Lincoln Asa Nobmann

On March 1st, 2009, we welcomed Lincoln Asa Nobmann into our family. This now makes boy number three. A friend once made the comment that when he and his wife had their third, this required the switch from man-to-man to zone defense.

Unfortunately, since we were already losing to the two boys, I fear the consequences of "Team Offspring" now taking advantage of always having one man wide open in the paint. We may need to impose the mercy rule--also known as "Pixar."

Mother and baby are doing fine, which is not to say the delivery was routine. We arrived at the hospital at 10 AM Sunday morning and the nurse said Katherine was already at a nine. Since she was already so close, and not in much pain, she passed on the epidural and they broke her water. After a couple of hours, the baby had still not engaged. The doctor came to check on Katherine and, eyes wide, said, "this is a big baby!"

Katherine started pushing, and after a few sets of pushes, the baby's head would come down, but not stay down. The doctor again commented on the size of the baby and said a c-section may be necessary. As a last resort, the doctor suggested Pitocin. This baby was not coming out any time soon.

Katherine then got an epidural, and started on the Pitocin. After about an hour, the baby was engaged and the pushing began again. Shortly, the head was out, but the shoulders were stuck. There are four options to try to remove such a baby, and ours was out after three of the four. Step four would have involved the doctor reaching in and breaking the shoulder bone.

Occasionally, even option four is unsuccessful. When this happens, the doctor tucks the already-emerged head under, and pushes it back inside. Yes, back inside. An emergency c-section is then performed. Fortunately, Lincoln only required the first three options, as somehow my amazing, petite Katherine was able to deliver our 8 lb 12 oz "Lincoln Log."

Notwithstanding the delivery drama, Lincoln has been an absolute dream baby. We have to wake him up at night to feed him, and have often laid him down when he is tired, but still awake, only to have him fall asleep on his own. We are absolutely floored. We would have been less surprised if he'd come home and cleaned the bathrooms.

the funny things they say...

February in Texas is more like mid spring is everywhere else, except we still get our share of Winter's colds and flus. We've had it pretty easy on the sickness front since coming to Texas' warm climate, but of course occasionally someone gets a cold, and obligingly passes it along to the rest of the family. So, from the germ factory that a public elementary school is, Harrison brought home a cold recently, and Asher's had it this last week or so.

He woke mom in the middle of the night a few days back, saying, "I'm stuck, Mommy. I'm stuck." I said, "What do you mean, Asher? To which he continued to lament in his half awake stage that he was "stuck." Finally, I woke up enough to realize he meant he needed some help blowing his nose- poor little guy. Last night he came in and woke up Sean, saying, "I'm gonna 'splode, Daddy! I'm gonna 'splode!" Which once again was a request for help with a 2:00 a.m. nose blowing.

And Harrison told me on the way home from soccer practice this week (which was a little chilly and got his nose running) that there was a "waterfall of boogies coming out of his face."

Though colds don't make our list of favorite things, some of these comments sure have. We wish all of you health as Winter closes, and if not that, a few choice phrases to laugh about!

brothers are the best

Harrison and Asher are the best of friends... or not. As with lots of siblings, there's not much middle ground. They're learning to take good care of each other, and Valentine's Day is not the only day at our house when "I love you" notes are made for each other...those days do a mother's heart good...