3 months

3 months gone in the blink of an eye.

Wasn't it just this morning he looked like this?

All wrinkly and sweet and tiny?

Somewhere in between the laundry and homework and cooking and cluster feeding, my little man turned into a roly poly little cherub. He traded in his skinny little chicken legs for a lovely set of cankles. 

One thing hasn't changed: we are all still madly in love with him. He has been such a joy...such a happy baby (as long as you don't try to put him in a car seat.)

Thank you, Emily, for capturing him so beautifully at these stages. If they make me all weepy now, what is going to happen in ten years when I look back on them?

M.O.M.

 So, Lili and Audrey have started having "school" for Kateri when they come home in the afternoons. They have named their program "Mary our Mother" school, aka M.O.M. as in "M.O.M. is such a slacker at homeschool preschool that we have to take matters into our own hands." I guess they can't have me embarrassing them next year when Kateri starts kindergarten woefully unprepared.
Anyway, here is the pile of supplies I found when the big girls went to school on Monday:

I especially like Lili's lesson plan...my favorite is how she wanted to start with a placement test to "see where she is at" although we may need to outsource her spelling program to someone who can, you know, spell.

Here are the rules and contract promising good behavior.

It has actually been really nice the past two afternoons. Lili gets Kateri set up with some work and then does her own homework, taking turns with Audrey, who is the "co-teacher" and handles religion and science. Religion consists of storytelling in the legendary style of the legendary Miss Stagg. I need to set up a hidden camera to catch her in action. I need a video of "choir practice" too, to catch Kateri fudging her way through the Latin hymn Lili has tried to teach her.

 

It all has made for a nice quiet pre-dinner hour.

I wonder how long they will keep it up.

A little comparison

Now that Isaiah is starting to chunk out a little, he looks a little bit more like a Speier baby.

Here he is today.

Compared to Kateri four years ago

 

 

 

Isaiah's Baptism

 Isaiah was welcomed into the Church on October 13th. He wore the gown and bonnet that my father was baptized in. It has been used by three generations, but this was the first Speier child who had a small enough head to wear the bonnet. (Much to his father's delight.)

 

With his Godparents, Uncle Steve and Aunt Cindy

the family with Fr. Vietor (and Abby in self-imposed exile in the background)

 It was a blessing to have both grandmothers there on Isaiah's big day.

 The occasion even put to rest the ancient feud between Luke and his "arch enemy" Tesfaye, who had been praying novenas that his nemesis be blessed with a male heir.

It was a beautiful day, but although the sacrament washed away his Original Sin, it didn't turn Isaiah into a perfect angel, as you can see from this shot after Mass the following week. 



Highlights from Isaiah's first month

We were so happy to get our little man home and settled, where he had no shortage of devoted admirers. There is nothing sweeter than a snuggly newborn, so he spent most of his first few weeks getting passed around between his family members.

I know it looks like Kateri is trying to unscrew his head in this picture. She wasn't.

 We were so grateful that Nanny decided to ignore my hunch that I would be overdue. She was there to cook and clean and take the kids swimming in the heat.  Her presence made our transition period so much easier...plus she was one of Isaiah's favorite spots to nap.

Thank you Nanny!

 The girls have been helpful too (notwithstanding a few squabbles over who gets to hold him and when.) Lili is actually old enough to be a real help...she can rock him and burp him and calm him down when he is fussy. I always knew she was a baby person, so it is fun to see her enjoy her baby brother so much. Audrey's enthusiasm and eagerness to help outmatches her competency right now, so I've given her her own special job. She's the bathtime assistant; helping me get everything ready and get him dressed afterwards.

 He was not the biggest fan of bathtime initially, but he is coming around.

 And if only every new mother could have a husband like mine. I think Lili must get her baby instincts from her dad. His way with babies was actually one of the first things that I noticed about him, way back in college. He just has the magic touch.

 I think Isaiah would agree.

 

I can't believe he has been with us for five weeks tomorrow and yet it is already hard to believe he wasn't always with us. He has already started to change...his skinny little chicken legs are slowly getting some meat on them and is smiling at us now. I can't wait to see his personality come out as he grows.

Isaiah James

It is still hard for me to believe that I have had this little guy in my life for ten days now. I fully expected to be overdue and miserable today, instead of typing out this post one-handed with a sleepy baby on my lap, but thankfully God had other plans. Isaiah James came early on Tuesday Sept. 18th at 12:24pm. He was the tiniest of our babies, weighing in at 7lbs 14oz. I'm not big on birth stories, preferring to remember the labor and delivery through rose-tinted glasses, but everything went well, my midwife was awesome, as was my husband.

After I got over my profound shock that we had a boy, we called Kateri to tell her she had a brother.

"Hey I wanted a bwotha!" was her response.

She and Nanny came down to the hospital right away to meet him...I think this is an example of when (even blurry) pictures speak better than words.

 

( Don't be fooled by those chubby cheeks...he has the skinniest little chicken legs you ever saw.)

 Nona picked up Lili and Audrey from  school and brought them down as well.

 Even Abby made it down to see him.

We are a family of six now! We are so blessed!

Labor Day in Pine

We decided to pretend it was still summer and get out of the heat one last time by heading up to Nona's cabin for Labor Day.

It was cool and breezy and once again we had a delightful family weekend. Since I was a little too far along in my pregnancy to make any long hikes practical, we headed to Strawberry on Saturday to visit Fossil Springs Creamery...this was pretty much the most exciting part of our trip, so get ready for a lot of pictures of goats:

They make delicious goat cheese and fudge, and for a small fee, you can pet and play with the "baby" goats. Lili and Audrey had had this experience last year with Nona, but it was all new to Kateri and she was absolutely delighted by the whole experience.

 They were a little...persistent...in their friendliness. 

When we were chatting with the proprietor, he mentioned that they are also for sale... a detail which did not escape the notice of our poor deprived pet-less children. 

I never really thought of a goat as an especially cuddly member of the family, but Audrey disagreed. She really wanted to come back at 4pm when she could (for a small fee) actually milk one of the dairy goats.

Luckily we have a new baby on the way, which makes it impossible to even entertain the notion of acquiring a goldfish, let alone a goat. 

Do you think these ones have identified with Audrey as the black sheep of the family? 

Kateri just kept repeating any time a goat came up to her to be petted: " Look, this one loves me! This one never wants to be away from me!"

One actually did try to escape with us as we were going out through the gate and Kateri was completely convinced it was because it was desperate to come home with her.

Audrey really liked the Nubian breeds' floppy ears.

The dairy goats all had name tags...and my kids were excited to see one named "Nanny." Kateri said, "Oh it has the same name as Nanny because they both have white hair on top of their heads."

Sorry Mom.

There was also a Lily and an Emily, so Kateri was very disappointed that she had no caprine namesake. Poor kid, she's never going to be able to find her name on a personalized mug or key chain either. 

We also visited the one room schoolhouse in Strawberry.

The girls writing on their slates.

Lili put her new glasses to good effect pretending to be teacher.

My favorite part of the visit was realizing that these McGuffey readers used here as props are the same exact books our kids' school uses in their current curriculum. Awesome.

Sunday we took some nice walks and relaxed, although we did make time for another group tennis lesson. It was once again such a nice weekend; it's hard to believe that next time we visit we'll be a family of six!