Hello Sean, Goodbye Shannon

It is with sadness that I report we are losing one of the cousins to the north country. Shannon decided about 6 weeks ago to return back to New England. There were several factors that led to the decision but the biggest one started with a capital "S"! My brother Shawn hooked her up with one of his single church members, Sean, and after some corresponding and finally meeting in person, they are now "going steady" as they would say in the old days. So who could really blame Shannon for wanting to live where he is and the fact that he lives not too far from her home town, well, that's an added bonus. It's all worked out very nicely as she just landed a job in the North Conway hospital working in the ED. I'm sure it will be quite different than the Florida Hospital ED to say the least. She'll be moving at the end of the month. This has forced David and Megan to move out of their three bedroom into a two bedroom - - and they're relocating from Maitland to Altamonte.

So the exciting thing is that Sean surprised Shannon by flying down here on Thursday night. It was his first time coming down here (at least while they've been dating). I had met him very briefly at the Manchester airport when we flew up there last month but I was excited to get to know him more. We went over there on Friday night for waffles and drum roll please.....we really like him! He'll be coming up to Nova Scotia too for a long weekend so that will be the real test. I'm sure he'll be great.

The girls are doing great. It still feels weird to say that, "girls." But it's neat to realize I have multiple children! And I'm getting pretty used to it. One of the more challenging things has been what to do when they both need to eat at the same time. For example, in the mornings, we'll usually go out and do something around 10:30 or 11:00 and we'll return to the house at about 12:30. I'll have fed Aubree right before we left so when we get back, it's time for her to eat again. But then it will also be time for Calleigh to eat before her nap. So I have to hurriedly throw together something for Calleigh to eat and then I sit at the table next to her highchair while I feed Aubree. I do end up having to get up every now and then to get stuff for Calleigh but fortunately Aubree doesn't mind too much that her meal is getting interrupted. After Aubree nurses on one side, I take Calleigh upstairs, get her changed and put to bed, come back and feed Aubree on the other side, wrap her and put her in her reclined chair (since swing is broken) for her nap and then finally get to eat myself. By that time it's about 1:45 and I'm starving. This is also when I start working. A few days ago I actually tried to put Aubree in her crib for her nap but she kept fussing and losing her binky so I gave up on it for now.

On Monday we will go for Aubree's two month appointment. I weighed her on Tuesday when she turned eight weeks and she weighed in at 10 lbs, 4 oz. That means she has gained 61 ounces or an average of 7.6 ounces a week. I read that a breastfed baby gains between 5 - 7 ounces a week from 0 - 4 months so Aubree seems to be flourishing with that. We'll get the official word on where she stand on Monday.

On Tuesday we went to story time as usual. That in itself would not necessarily be newsworthy except for what I saw on the way out. There's a children's section to the library that we go to for the story time. There are some computers located there that anyone can use. We have to pass them to leave the section. As we walked out, I can't help but look at the computer screens and right in front of me, and right in front of anyone who happened to walk by, are a bunch of boobies. Yes, this fifty something guy was looking at porn on the computer in the children's section of the library. For crying out loud. Fortunately Calleigh didn't notice it and I hurried us on out. I was asked why I didn't report it but frankly, even though it's in extremely poor judgement to be doing that, I don't know if there's some rule against it. And anyway, I just wanted to get out of there. Crazy, huh?

Thursday morning we went over the Herr's to meet baby Jadyn who was born on July 9. She weighed 8 lbs, 6 oz at birth and it was amazing to see how much bigger those almost 2 pounds made when you compare how big she was to Aubree when she was born. Jadyn has a full head of hair, which I'm very jealous of, and she has a very dark complexion - - which I'm sure Aubree will be jealous of after her first sunburn someday (Aubree is SO fair). She looks very much like Jonathan which is to say that she's very cute! Jonathan and Calleigh didn't pay too much attention to the babies as they were busy playing.

Speaking of Thursday, that was the day that I was left alone with the girls at night by myself. Duncan's work had a special overnight outing in Longboat Key for the leaders of the department. It's a couple of hours away so they stayed overnight. Ron and Elaine were kind enough to have us over for supper so that was nice. I fed Aubree before we left to come home so that when we did get back and it was time for Calleigh to get to bed, I wouldn't have a scheduling conflict. So it all worked out fine but I have to say I'm very thankful for a husband. There is such a good reason why kids should have both a father and mother living under the same roof!

I was wondering how long it would take Calleigh before she tried to nurse one of her baby dolls. And the answer was about eight weeks. I was in the shower the other day with Calleigh in her pack 'n play. I hear her asking Lulu if she was hungry and then ask her if she wanted some booby. I peak out the curtain and there's Calleigh with her shirt up and Lulu was pressed up against her. After about 30 seconds, apparently Lulu finished her meal and then Calleigh was pounding on her back to burp her. We have a little green pillow that goes with Aubree's activity mat that she's supposed to use to prop her head on while she's doing tummy time. While, we had just found the pillow a few days ago and put it on the mat. When Calleigh saw it for the first time, she got all excited and said it was her Bobby (the pillow I use when nursing Aubree) so she immediately put it on her lap and nursed Lulu while Lulu was lying on it. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the actual nursing session but here they are just after!

Calleigh's getting to that stage where it's fun talking to her just to see what she's going to say. Usually you don't have to wait long before she'll say something that will give you a good chuckle. A few days ago we were in the car and somehow we got talking about Jesus being in the clouds (I think she got this from her Bible that shows Jesus sitting in the clouds). I told her about how Jesus was in Heaven and he would come here to pick us up and take us up to Heaven. To which she responded, "Will Jesus pick up my suitcase?" She's also asked several times since then when we've talked about Heaven (because once you talk about something once with a kid, you're sure to go over it and over it multiple times, right?) whether Jesus will hold her. And when I say yes, he'll hold her, she seems happy with that answer. It's just strange that she would ask that because I've never mentioned anything like that. But it's really a sweet thought.

Another funny comment was yesterday when we went to a yard sale (my first one since Aubree's arrival). Since Duncan had the GPS on his trip, I had looked up the address on the Internet. However, I realized eventually that I was going the wrong way so I said to Calleigh "Mommy didn't go the right way" to which she said "Mommy you went the left way?" Of course, I then had to explain how the word "right" has multiple meanings. I can see how learning English could be a bit confusing!

I think that's all for now. I'm headed up for my bath. I'm posting a few pictures here from Duncan and Calleigh's Sea World trip since I couldn't post them before.