A Little of This, a Little of That

Where to start? I guess I'll start with Micah's drawings because it's what keeps coming to mind...
Micah drew this picture the other day. Want to guess what it is?

Why, it's space ships, of course! What were you thinking?? He's only 2 for crying out loud! :)

Ok, here is another of his drawings. It is the first time (other than the "space ships") that he has drawn something specific--and this one is even recognizable!

Ok, it's MOSTLY recognizable. It's a robot. Blue robot, of course, since no other color exists to Micah (you may have noticed that the "space ships" were blue, too).



Josiah made up a new song recently...
"I can walk through the air 'cause I'm Luke Skywalker."
It is somewhat humorous to me that he knows the Star Wars characters since he has never seen the movies, doesn't have any books about it and yet, thanks to his parents love of the movies, he not only knows the characters but also several key lines from the movies. "Luke, I am your fah-thur" (By the way, it's hysterical to hear him say this line because he tries to make his 4 year old voice really deep and scratchy)



Everyone keeps asking how the boys are doing with Emilia. To be honest, they not only like having a sister, they LOVE her. I have been surprised and amazed at how well they have adapted to our new little one and by how much affection they have for her. Yesterday when I was trying to get Molly to sleep (which she was fighting super hard), Josiah came back and laid with her and me on the bed and patted her back trying to calm her down--with her constantly screaming. No "why is she crying?" or "Why wont she stop?" or anything like that. He just came back, asked if he could snuggle us and then rubbed her back to try and calm her. It was so sweet.



Today when I was dropping Josiah off at school I left Micah and Molly in the car. When I came back Micah was singing. He said, "Mommy, I was singing baby Molly a lullabye while you were gone." One of my favorite moments of the lsst couple weeks was when Emilia was crying and Micah came running into the living room and said, "Mommy, baby Molly is calling for you. Come see!" Then he led me, beckoning me on with several little waves of his hand, back to where Molly was "sleeping." Micah climbed on the bed and over to her and rubbed her face and said, "Shhh, shhh. It's ok Molly. Mommy's here now. It's ok." Yeah. The boys love their sister.



Little Miss Emilia is doing very well. She loves to eat and sleep, as all good babies do. She also LOVES to stretch. I think she even beats her dad in this category! One time when I was trying to feed her she was still in the process of waking up and, seriously, she stretched for 5 minutes. No kidding! Arms up, legs straight, arch back, scrunch face, arms in, legs in, legs out, face up, chin down, squirm. Repeat process. I hope you get to see the production sometime because it's really quite cute!



Molly has also ALREADY outdone her brothers. She has peed and pooped on John!! Ha-ha!! After the FIRST poop (yes, there's been more than one!) John said, "I made it through two boys without even being peed on and now I have a little girl and within 2 weeks she pees AND poops on me!"

This is her "drunk on milk" look:


Seems like there was another Josiah story I was going to tell you...my sleep deprived brain can't come up with it right now, though. I'll have to add it later. I've got a video to add, anyway, so look for those to be coming your way soon. (And remember, "soon" is a relative term and I do have a newborn) :)

My "SuperBoys"





Oh, and I'll go ahead and tell on myself. I've already missed the first big milestone in my third child's life....I forgot the camera on her first Easter. :(

Some Pictures From Today

I feel like Molly has changed so much in the past four days....maybe not in what she does because, let's face it, there's just not much that newborns do, but in how she looks. When she was first born she had quite a bit of swelling and bruising on her face. Most of that has gone down now and so she looks different to me. Maybe you wont think so, but I'm going to share some new pics with you anyway!

This is how she usually sleeps--mouth wide open!


And just so you know she DOES have eyeballs:

Behind the Name

We've had a couple people ask where we came up with Emilia's name, so I thought I'd just put it out here for everyone to read, just in case you were curious!

So, we went with family names this time around.
Emilia - from my great grandfather Emil and his grandmother Amelia. Meaning: Work of the Lord or friendly.

Claire - from my great grandmother Clara (and her mother Clara and her mother's mother Clara...) :P Meaning: Clear or bright.

We've been calling her Molly as a nickname. Not your typical nickname for Emilia, but in case you care, here is the reasoning behind that, too! We both wanted a nickname for our little girl BUT...I already know a Mia, John didn't like Lia and neither of us liked Emmie or Millie. So....we decided Molly wasn't TOO much of a stretch and we both like it.

So, there you have it. The story behind the name.

Ok, I was just going to post about the name, but I thought of a few more things to add to this...

First of all, John informed me yesterday that there is new terminology in our house..."the girls." (Hooray! I'm not the only girl anymore!) Molly and I were napping and I guess Josiah was on his way to go potty and John reminded him to be quiet and then asked if Josiah remembered why he needed to be quiet. Josiah said, "Yes, because the girls are sleeping."


And speaking of girls...Josiah was watching John change one of Molly's diapers yesterday and as soon as John pulled the diaper back Josiah exclaimed, "OH! It IS a girl!" As if he had doubted our honesty. Nah, it's a boy...we were just waiting to see how long it would take you to figure it out. Ha! Or I guess it's such a shock because all we had before were boys...I'm still in awe myself sometimes that we ACTUALLY have a girl!!


Last thing (I think)...John declared yesterday that he doesn't care what anyone says; boys and girls just come out different. :) Molly has this...well, squeal that she does when something bothers her. It's not a cry, its a squeal (to be honest, it kinda reminds me of a pig!). The first time she did it John just looked at her (I think he was hoping it was a fluke) and the second time he said, "She's a girly girl already!" And then the comment that they just come out different. Hee-hee! We're in for a world of fun with this one!

As you can see we are all just head over heels in love with our new baby girl.

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

She's here!

That's right--we have a new baby GIRL! She made her debut into the world last night at 6:53 p.m. after the strangest labor I have ever had! But, without further ado, here she is:
Miss Emilia Claire Mustaleski
weighing in at 9 lbs. 3 oz.
measuring 22 inches in length
and well on her way to being a Lady Vol! :)
(Think I should go ahead and send Pat her stats??)

Make Way for Baby!!!

To the resident of my belly,

I am formally informing you of your eviction that is to happen within the next 20 hours. I ask that you remove yourself from your current residence and take with you all your belongings. Please clean up before you leave.

The reason for this eviction notice is due to the landlords loss of ankle bones, the inability for waistline expansion and the increase in general aches and pains that have now occurred with stay. Also we are currently having issues with the pumping of your residence and would like to reduce the usage.

Relocation however will allow you increased space for stretching and is ready for you to take up. The new location is fully furnished with all soft items for your comfort and comes with room service at all times. Early relocation from current resident will result in extra hugs and kisses. We thank you for your understanding and look forwards to showering you with love and affection.

Yours Faithfully
Mommy


To the rest of you reading this...
Looks like we're FINALLY going to meet our baby!!! WA-HOOOOOOO!!
PLEASE do not call to check on us as I will be in no condition to talk to anyone and John will be busy helping me. We WILL let you know when baby gets here and gush over how cute and adorable he/she is. :)

Randomness of a Pregnant Brain

The boys really like to play games...have I mentioned that before? One of their favorites (especially Micah's) is called "Zingo." It's one of the many we got for Christmas and we have played it SO MUCH in the last 2 months. At least it's a fun game for adults, too, and not one of those you have to fake enthusiasm about (at least I think it's fun!). Micah likes to be the "dealer" and put the pieces out and he's also very thoughtful...if you mss a piece that is on your board, he'll get it for you--as long as it's not a piece he needed, too! The best part of the game, to me, is when they "swipe" a piece that you needed, too. They always come over and put their hand on your cheek and say, "It's okay, Mommy, there will be another (clock)." Then they sit back down to finish the game. John did that to Micah the first time he missed a piece and now it's tradition to do everytime. So far, Micah seems to have the luck in the family because I bet 9 times out of 10 he wins (hmmmm...maybe there is a reason he likes this game so much!) and sometimes Josiah gets frustrated because "I wanted to say ZINGO!" But anyway...here is a pic of the boys and John playing "Zingo."

I've been playing with more "shadow" pictures lately. For awhile now I've tried to do silhouette tracings of the boys, but they will never stand still long enough for me to trace them. But after taking my belly shots the other week I had the "brilliant" idea that I could just take a silhouette PICTURE of them....surely they can stand still long enough for that? (And they did, it was more a matter of keeping them looking straight ahead and not at the camera!) And then, from playing with the pics on the computer, I turned them into real silhouettes. Awesome! Here they are:
Josiah's

Micah's

As I mentioned in the last post, the boys are both really excited about our new baby. Everyday Josiah says, "Maybe today the baby wil come out!" Yep....maybe. No one's been pregnant forever, right? (that's what I keep reminding myself) And Micah has really surprised me with how lovey he's been to "baby." The most recent thing was taking care of baby La-la the other day. He said baby La-La couldn't find her Mommy so he was taking care of her. And he sat there for several minutes on the couch just holding her like a baby and talking to her like a baby, rocking her back and forth. Here's the pic I snatched:

And lastly...another preggo pic of me. I think this one turned out better than the other. I made John take this one and then I changed some of the lighting stuff on the computer. I can't remember when I had him take these....maybe last weekend? So 39 weeks. Yes, that's right folks, my due date is tomorrow and baby's still baking. I guess not EVERYTHING about this pregnancy will be different. Bummer!!

It's March!

Yea!! March is finally here! We are all soooo excited about it being March and getting to meet our newest addition any day now! On Saturday when we got up, I asked Josiah, "Do you know what today is?" He said no and I told him it was the first day of March. Oh my, if only you could have seen his face. Everything lit up, his eyes got big and he grabbed my hands and said, "That means the baby is coming!" It was so adorable! Every night the boys have been giving the baby hugs and kisses and telling the baby goodnight before bed. Tonight Micah even said, "I love you, litte baby." Josiah will sometimes remind the baby that it is March now and he/she can come out now. :) They both love feeling the baby move around and watching my belly "wiggle" and they think it's great to put their faces on my belly and pretend the baby kicked them! Oh, and on Saturday my mom watched the boys for us and when we were getting ready to go over there, Josiah started to panic--what if I had the baby while he was at Nana's?? How would he get to the hospital to come see us if he wasn't here? It took several minutes of reassurance that IF we had the baby we would call Nana and let them all know and Nana would bring him AND Micah to the hospital to see the new baby. And yes, we had to spell it all out to him to fully put his concerns to rest. Goodness!! Anyway, just wanted to share some of our enthusiasm with you! We will let you know when our little one decides to make his or her grand entrance!