More Lucy

Just in case you needed a little more Lucy in your life, here's some more photos of our little peanut. My friend Janet came and took some pictures and did a great job, especially considering Lucy was less than cooperative. Thanks, Janet! Now for your viewing pleasure:

P.S. Amy and Kasey, like all of Lucy's outfits? Whatever would we do without Bean's and Sarah's clothes?

Introducing...

Lucille Grace Madsen

It's official. I won the coin toss, so Lucille Grace it is. (We really did flip a coin. And I did legitimately win, though Josh claims, "We all knew you would get your way anyway." I should say so. I gave her life without an epidural so my vote counts at least 10% more. And yes, don't you worry. I will be using that without-an-epidural card as long as I so shall please).
We love her. Her brother clearly loves her (seriously loves her. He tells everyone, "Come see my baby sister! She came out!").
And we even love her when she looks like this:

Pictures of Baby Lucy: My Gift to You

Welcome to the world, little baby Lucy. You may still be officially nameless (will it be Lucille or Lucy?) and you may have come into this world far too fast and furiously (barely made it to the hospital) and you may look a little bit like a boy (she is a twin of Will when he was brand new) but one thing is for sure: you are adorable and loved to pieces. Grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles and cousins have been begging for photos, so enjoy these photos of baby Lucy with limited commentary (my brother Jon says he never reads the words any way--he calls my blog too wordy). I'll post more details later.

First picture ever. Birth date: Wednesday, October 12, 3:15 a.m. Born at 39 weeks 6 days. One day early. I really thought she was never going to come.
Weight: 8 lbs. 4 oz. Height: 21 inches. Healthy and happy, with a cone head just like her brother Will. Can you believe I gave birth to this big baby SANS drugs? I think I should get some sort of award. Especially since I am the world's #1 advocate of modern medicine (a.k.a. epidurals).

Hospital attire: cap and swaddling blanket.

You can't really tell from the photo, but she has the cutest strawberry blond hair. Whenever Will was at the hospital, all the nurses would comment on our redheaded children.

Will's first time meeting baby Lucy. I'd say he likes her. I think the jury's still out as to whether or not he wants to keep her. And I'm pretty sure his favorite part of the hospital was the moving beds. He would not stop playing with those beds, making them go up and down. I think that is one of my favorite parts of the hospital, too. That and the nurses call button attached to the beds. I want one of those at my house.

Will and his little sister, Lucy.

Getting ready to take off. We kind of left the hospital in a mad rush because I was getting a roommate and wanted no part of that, so as my gift to that new mom, we left that night so she could have a solo room. I'd been there two full days and one night anyway. Plus, the beauty of the nursery in the middle of the night was dead to me since every time I called the nursery to come and take the baby back THEY NEVER CAME. So, baby girl bunked with me all night anyway.

Oh yes, I was there too. Once we got her in some pink, she looked more feminine. We realized as we were leaving the hospital that we never took any pictures of me. Luckily, we snapped a few photos at the end. It's a good thing since I'd say I was a pretty integral part of this whole process.

Isn't she a doll?

All ready for the car ride home.

Once home, Will insisted both he and she get their nigh-nighs and have them downstairs. He's usually not allowed to have his nigh-nigh downstairs, so I'm sure this was all a ploy to get his nigh nigh, but it was still cute.

Trying to give her a kiss.

Sorry baby girl, but I'm afraid this is a portent of things to come--getting harassed by your much bigger big brother.

We love you, little Lucy (or little Lucille?). We are thrilled you are finally here!

I Dare You to Find. . .

. . .a little boy as cute as this:
or this:

And to further illustrate my point, here are the latest in Will's funny sayings/doings:

• A few weeks ago, he was just walking around the house calling things nasty, as in, "Oh boy, that is nasty." I was a little perplexed by this, since I don't recall using this word. When I asked him who taught him to say that, he quickly replied, "Grammy taught it to me." Right, Will, Grammy did.


• It was a rainy day and I was car-less and trying to get things done around the house. So, Will just played and played around me, never getting dressed. In fact he was just wearing his jammy tops and some underwear, when I told him that dada would be coming home soon. To this he responded, "Do that mean I need to put on pants?" Yes, dada is the known pants-enforcer in our home.


• We were running late to a doctor's appointment, when I told Will I would be his best friend if he would just buckle himself in his carseat. Since no immediate action was taken and I needed to get going, I just reached back and buckled him myself. While doing so, Will stated, "I want you to be my best friend and buckle me!"


• Josh, Will and I were off to a church function when we got stuck in traffic due to construction. Knowing the extent of the traffic, I could foresee that the usual 5-minute-commute to the church would take at least 40 minutes; thus, I started whining (in my defense, food was to be served at this function and I hadn't eaten since lunch so I was hungry, hungry, hungry which makes me a tad testy). After listening to my complaints for a few minutes, Will told me from the back of the car, "Mama, just be quiet!" Nothing like being put in your place by a three-year-old.


• Lately, I've been obsessed with listening to Les Miserables. I guess it's been quite a bit since one time while in the car I asked Will what he wanted to listen to and he replied, "The Jon U Jon song." I laughed and laughed at that, since I knew that he meant Jean Valjean. And now, he walks around singing, "Who am I? I'm Jon U Jon!"


• Will must be listening to me intently lately since yesterday, he stated, "Why can't baby Lucy just be born already?" Don't we both want to know, buddy.


• He is obsessed with hiding. When he hears the garage door opening, indicating Josh is home, he runs and cries, "Hide! Hide! Hide!" And every night, before bed, if he has to run to go potty or brush his teeth, he tells Josh and me to hide. We always hide in the same spot (under the covers) but he acts surprised every time. My favorite is when we play hide and go seek and he tells me, "I seeked you!" (meaning, of course, he found me).
  
  Here are a few more pics:

Will and Josh enjoying scones on the floor/stool since Josh was using all the chairs to tie baby Lucy's quilt.

Will's current obsession: making me print off pictures from clipart so he can color them and then hang them himself. He is going to run us out of house and home with the way he goes through markers--he presses that hard. He really is quite the talented colorer, though. My favorite is the picture he colored entirely black. I'm pretty sure that brand new marker is out of ink now.

World, Meet Wolverine, My Husband

It's no secret that, though not an exceptionally talented person myself, my one true talent lies in surrounding myself with truly talented people. Enter Joshy, who really is one of the most talented people I know. And though he may not be a true super hero in the worldly sense (even though after a good night's rest he has the "Wolverine hair" as seen in the picture below), he really has been my super hero in helping me prepare for this baby. My nesting instinct has mostly consisted of merely standing by and ensuring Josh gets everything done on his "Honey-do" list. Here is just a small taste of what he's accomplished to prepare us for baby Lucy (who, please bless, will make her appearance real soon).
Will and Josh displaying Josh's perfect Wolverine hair. Notice the shelves he made hanging on the wall behind them and the bed he made for Will that they are sitting on (and the cute comforter my SIL made).


1. The closet. He not only hung extra shelves in the master closet so that he could move all his gear in, but he also eliminated at least 30 t-shirts from his collection to make room for baby Lucy. If any of you truly know Josh, then you know how difficult this was for him. He is insanely attached to his t-shirts. I was laughing so hard at some of his comments while downsizing (I wrote them down b/c I needed it on paper--here's just a few):

• "But what if I ever need to be a cowboy?"


• "It might be time to give this one away. It's too big. It's got stains on it. I've had it for 17 years. I'll sleep in it tonight one last time, then give it away."


• "I could acid wash them to make them look better." (That one's for his brother, Nate).

2. Making a "nigh-nigh" with Will for baby girl. They even went to the fabric store and picked out the material. When I tried to make a suggestion as to what fabric to buy, I was ushered away by Will, who insisted, "Mama, this is our project. Now go away." When Josh was trying to explain something to me in the fabric store about quilting, he whispered to me, "I can't talk about it here. I can't let people know that I know more about quilting than you."


3. Sanding, priming and painting, painting, painting.
He re-painted the crib so it looks brand new (destructo Will had done a number on it--plus, remember he built that crib in the first place). And look at the darling bedding my sister-in-law Kasey made. Really, that deserves its own blog post. And when I get the nursery fully decorated, don't you worry, I will devote an entire post to that wonderfully talented lady. (Plus, the nursery is a bit of a hot mess still since Josh and I have been sleeping on the guest bed on the floor in there since our master bed is too soft for my aching back).

He sanded, primed and painted this dresser with 4 coats of paint! It was in need of some serious TLC. Thanks to my neighbor and friend who donated it to us.

And, of course, he painted and primed this glider that I scored at a garage sale when Will was 6-months-old (that I never finished). Notice the darling quilt Kasey made to match the bedding. Plus, amazing Kasey re-covered the cushions for me for Christmas of 2008. Good thing it finally gets to be used!

4. These are just a small number of the projects (really, the most photogenic ones). Of course, all this was done on top of his usual household duties: cooking, cleaning, putting Will to bed, etc., etc. Basically, I've been useless these last few weeks of pregnancy. It's a good thing I'm so talented at marrying such a talented guy. We love you, Wolverine; couldn't have done it without you.

First Day of School

*Another long and boring post written mainly for my records.

The first day of preschool has come and gone. And while there were a few tears (only from me), I'd say it was a success. The night before we had a special meal, his choice: mac and cheese, green beans, cantaloupe and homemade bread. Turns out, the homemade mac and cheese was not his favorite (I guess he likes it out of the box better, but not me; this mac and cheese was decadent) and Josh got stuck in traffic due to closed bridges from the flooding (his usual 10-minute commute took him two-and-a-half hours!) and by the time he made it home, Will was beyond ready for bed and as I was beyond ready for Will to go to bed as well. Will got to open some presents (a few books, a tradition I'd like to keep for pre-back-to-school night) and then he was off to bed.

The next day, he couldn't contain his excitement. He wouldn't let go of his "leaf" poster and he insisted on wearing his Thomas the Train backpack (and not the cute LLBean backpack Granny bought). Since it was Josh's day off, we both accompanied him to his first day of school. Once at preschool, Will ran in to play with the toys and was completely engrossed, never giving neither Josh nor me a second thought. I tried to get his attention to say good-bye, but he wanted none of it.

When we came and got him, he was jazzed to see us. He ran up to his teacher and gave her a hug, telling her, "I can't wait to see you again, Ms. Stephanie!" It was the cutest thing ever. Then he told us that his favorite part of preschool was Ms. Stephanie. He loved story time, insisting that we check out the Monkey and the Alligator book at the library next time (we even found the very book on Amazon and reserved it from the library). He also told us that there were goldfish and grapes for his first snack, but that he was too tired to eat, so Ms. Stephanie told him to take a nap on his chair. He said he did (lately, "I am too tired" has been his excuse to get out of anything he doesn't want to do, though I'm surprised he used that for snack time). He came home with a nice drawing with his name spelled on it like this: LLIW. Maybe he's dyslexic or maybe it's because he is ambidextrous (he will NOT choose a favored hand. He changes hands mid-meal, mid-color, etc. Should handedness be manifest by now? Who knows?) or maybe it is because he ran out of room (he always starts the W too far to the right of the page). But he loved preschool and he can't wait to go back.

Since Josh was off, we got to have a mini-date, realizing that this could be the only time to be sans children before Lucy makes her appearance. So, we ran a quick errand to Lowe's and then went out to breakfast, where we mostly talked about our cute little boy and how we can't get enough of him and how weird it will be for me to not have him constantly by my side. He's been my partner for so long, it just was sad to be without him (but good, too. I guess that's the way of life). That was a real treat--a daytime date with free babysitters (well, besides the preschool tuition fee, that is).

Now Will gets to go back tomorrow and I'm looking forward to a few weeks of having a few hours of free time in the middle of the day for a couple days a week. Hooray for that. I already have a haircut and pedicure planned for the next two preschool times. That's putting my time to good use, no?

Now enjoy the photos of our cute preschooler.

Here he is showing off his new books.

The before school shot, complete with his leaf poster, filled with family photos for the first day of school.

Tell me he isn't adorable?

He walked right in and saw his cubby with his name on it and was tickled pink that he would have a cubby with his name on it and just for his Thomas back pack.

The Mad-family all proud on Will's first day of school (though Will doesn't look too thrilled, he really was. It's just that he's never thrilled about getting pictures taken).

Lovermont

We lovermont (get it? We love Vermont. I saw that on a bumper sticker whilst there and had to steal it). And why do we love Vermont? We love Vermont because when we're there we get to:

Go on a mini-camping trip at this idyllic lake only three miles from the Vermont Madsens' home (meaning, Amy, baby James and I went home at 9:30 and slept peacefully in comfortable beds located very near flushing toilets while Josh and Nate had the pleasure of sleeping with all three kids in the tent).

Get assistance from older cousin Beth on everything, including going to the bathroom in the woods. (I had to include this photo, though mildly inappropriate; it just makes me laugh. The bathroom process took all three kids: Beth, to help Will put his pants back on and Sam to hold the light while Will went potty in the dark).

Go on fun mountain-bike rides with our cousins.

Go to the beach (not pictured), go out to eat and enjoy all our fun family time. Thanks, Vermont Madsens. What ever would we do without you?