Five Weeks.... and Surviving

Clara is five weeks old today. She had her one month checkup a few days back and got the thumbs up from the doctor for weighing in at 10 lbs. She is very strong and likes to hold her head up and look around when she's awake. She loves her swing, where she spends some of her daytime naps.

She started smiling around three weeks, which is earlier than our other babies ever did. Her first real smile was at Scott, which I immediately took as a sign that she's going to be a daddy's girl. She smiled a few times at Grandma too.

Speaking of Grandma... my Mom left to go back to Dubai a week ago. I sure miss you, Mom!

I really missed you this morning at 7:45 AM when Scott was in Toronto and I was walking all the kids to the bus stop with Nathan in the stroller and Clara bundled in the Snuggli because it was about 3 degrees outside.

Mostly I just miss hanging out with you and doing things together like cooking, shopping, sewing, and talking. I've been drinking those dessert teas everyday and thinking of you and what a great time we had together when you were here.


Clara is a good sleeper, in fact she has had three nights this past week where she slept for 6 hours straight. Oh, I can't tell you how grateful I am for those nights.

She went to her first concert on Tuesday when I took her to Waterloo to see my friend Meaghan Smith (who was totally amazing, by the way).


We are, on the whole, doing well. The adjustment to life with five young children has been as smooth as it possibly could, I'd imagine. I'm not going to lie. It is busy. Sometimes it's extremely overwhelming. I've learned the best thing to do in those situations is try to focus on getting through the day 10 minutes at time. I can't think too far beyond that or my brain gets overloaded.

My sister is flying across the country next Wednesday to come visit with my niece and nephew, and I am so incredibly excited about that!

Unfortunately, She's Inherited My Genes... But She Looks Darn Cute in Her New Spectacles

So, about four weeks ago, while sitting in church, I realized that Samantha may need to visit the Optometrist when I saw her squinting to read the Hymn numbers on the wall.

I took her in the next day and sure enough, she got a prescription, albeit a mild one. She picked out some cute purple ROOTS frames and a couple days later they were ready.

She was a little bit nervous to wear them to school for the first time, as one of her friends had said that she thought glasses were "weird". I was so happy when she came home and reported that the same friend, after seeing Samantha's glasses, thought they were awesome and was hoping she could get glasses too.

Clara's Blessing

Clara was blessed by her Dad on Sunday, September 28. We were very happy to have Grandma here for the blessing, along with Nana & Papa, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Lindsey, Tyler, Donna & Quinn and their three children, and many friends from here in London. We had all of our family over afterwards for a big dinner.

What Can I Say... The Kid Likes to Eat

You may have noticed that for the most part I've been MIA around this place for about, oh, nine months or so. And this little guy has done a lot of changing and growing up during that time.

Nathan is now going on 21 months old, and we're starting to see glimpses of the sweet personality that was so apparent when he was a baby, but seemed to get smothered in the baby-toddler transition phase he's gone through this year.

Nathan is curious, fearless, and persistent. He loves music and singing. Some of his favourite toys are his cars, his horses (along with the whole Wild West Fisher Price Set), and his tools.

And, like every other male in the family, he is obsessed with sports. He gets out there and plays street hockey on the driveway with the big kids, kicks soccer balls down the stairs, and has mastered the Little Tikes basketball hoop which currently resides in our entryway.

Nathan spent his summer traipsing around London from Samantha's soccer games to the boys' t-ball games to parks, splash pads, and more. He also got to see a lot of the province as we traveled to Play On! tournaments from London to Oshawa to Ottawa, not to mention Tobermory, where we spent a fantastic week at the cottage. He never complained about being strapped in his car seat, no matter how long the trip, and he loved the adventure of exploring new places and things.

(At the pool at the Holiday Inn in Ottawa - our last Play On! weekend of the season)

Nathan is talking a lot more, and loves to read books. His favourite right now is "Brown Bear" which he reads with Grandma at least 10 times every day.


While looking over photos of Nathan over the past few months, I noticed that most of the pictures centre around food somehow. Nathan does not like to get left out of anything, but he really puts his foot down when it comes to eating.

As our three oldest children have learned from experience -if you want to hang around Nathan for long, you'd better be good at sharing.

New Background

Since you asked... the new background is one I found at this website:

http://squidfingers.com/

I think everything on there is free, but he asks that you credit link back to his site.

Clara's First Two Weeks

I think a baby update is in order - including lots of pictures for Grandpa Jordan!

We came home from the hospital on Friday, September 19.

Some of Clara's first visitors (at the hospital and at home) were Uncle Jeff & Aunt Lindsey, Nana & Papa, Tasha, Adrienne, Kelly, Pauline, and Mila.

Clara had her first Doctor's appointment on September 24 - one week old. She weighed in at 8 lb 6 oz, and I was very happy to see that she had regained her birth weight and then some. (She had a discharge weight of 7 lb 14 oz).

So far Clara has been a very good-natured and content little girl. She sleeps really well in her swing or in the playpen during the day, waking up to eat every 2-3 hours. Sometimes she wakes up and just looks around. She's very alert when she is awake, and can already focus on looking at people and things. She loves to be held.

In the past few days she has started cluster feeding in the evenings from about 7:00 - 11:00 every night. During the night she's gone from waking up 4-5 times to about 2-3 times for feedings. She usually goes right back to sleep afterwards, which I am very grateful for.

She's been on lots of little outings, including some shopping trips, church this past Sunday, and to another baby shower for a friend of ours.

That's it for now. I hear someone waking up for lunch... and she does not like to wait!