Surviving

The last couple weeks have been interesting. Some good days...some really bad days. Taking care of three kids has been tricky, especially in a small apartment. Trying to get Katelyn to sleep with two loud kids...sometimes all three of them crying at once. I had to lock myself in the bathroom once. I keep telling myself that I know it'll get better, but will it? I can't complain too much, Katelyn does pretty well at night, for a newborn. She wakes me up only once to eat. It can be little hard to put her back to sleep though. I do still suffer from a little sleep deprivation, or at least it's a good excuse for where my brain has gone.

Anyway, here is a random assortment of pictures taken recently.

I swear she does not have gas. She is not a difficult baby, but she certainly isn't easy either. It's amazing how much work these little things are. I sure love that beautiful little face though!
These kids can be so fun to watch, they get really silly together.They still adore Katelyn, almost too much sometimes for her own good
One of the best parts of my day is seeing this girl light up when she sees me when I'm picking her up from school. I love walking hand in hand with her and hearing about all the fun things she did at school.
Katelyn loves the sling


Tommy has resisted his nap the past few days, which is a bummer because I was getting in some good naps. But this is what typically happens late afternoon...he camps out on the family room floor
Although it's been challenging keeping this kid entertained without his sister, and being busy rocking or nursing Kate, I've really enjoyed the one on one time with this little dude. Don't mind my hair. I'm lucky if I can get a shower in by lunch time, if at all :)
She's 3 weeks old already!!! I can't believe it.
A much needed movie night
We spent yesterday morning in Brooklyn, enjoying the playgrounds, free bike rentals, and ice cream


Cleaning the floor, or trying to get Katelyn to sleep?
Here's a somewhat pathetic attempt to get a family picture on self timer. Rachel needs to take one to school tomorrow and I realized we didn't have any.

Thanks again Grandma

My mom left on Sunday. We sure had a great time with her here and she was a huge help. Jake took off on Monday so yesterday was my first day all by myself. I managed to get Rachel to school on time, who cares if Tommy and I were still in our pjs. Katelyn decided to be awake and fussy ALL day and Tommy learned to take full advantage of the times I nurse. He raided the snack cupboard, pulled all the books off the shelves and toys out of the bins. It was an interesting day. Today, however, has been a lot better.

A few more things we did with grandma:
Playing on the "Big" Piano at FAO Schwarz. Fun store, except for the broken record, "can I have"..."I want"...The kids played dress up one afternoon...Cinderella and her prince, dancing and singing "so this is love" and Cinderella dashes off leaving a slipper behind. The prince says, "oh no, an emergency!" and runs off after her. He was quite distraught about it.
September 11 - we walked past the memorial service, saw a million firetrucks and police cars, and heard them reading off the names. A neat experience. If you're interested in what we see everyday (it's right across the street) and what their plans are for the world trade center site go to wtcprogress.com.
The "beach" at the south street seaport
To celebrate Grandma's last night we went to the restaurant on the river, right outside our apartment complex. Rachel's been begging to eat here since we moved in.
My mom is amazing, she took care of the cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, cooking...even getting up with my crazy kids in the morning. One morning Tommy woke up at 4:15, for good. She's a saint!
We sure miss you, Tommy's still wondering what happened to the magic bag :)

First Day of School

Well, we decided to do it. Rachel is going to Kindergarten. Her first day (half day) was on Wednesday. Here they are the night before. They kept their backpacks on all night, even through dinner. Rachel is really excited about it and cute little Tommy wants to be just like his big sis.
It's hard to believe I have an almost five year old. I almost cry just thinking about how fast she's growing up.
Off we goIt's a brand new school that is under a half mile from our apartment. This is the walk we'll be doing twice a day now. It's pretty now but I think I might despise it in a few months.
Meeting Miss Maddy
The classroomTommy was cute too, he was just as ready to go to school as Rachel. He made himself right at home with all the toys. He wanted to hang up his backpack right next to hers and did NOT want to leave. I looked into the public preschool they have, but it's everyday, I couldn't do that.

Okay, Daaaaad...ByeAdmiring the view of the Statue of Liberty from the Library
And her report: she had fun, her teacher is nice, her favorite part of the day was coloring, she was shy but she met a Kate, Caitlin, Oscar, and Owen.

Saying goodbye wasn't hard, I don't think it's really hit me yet especially since we had a half day then Thursday Friday off for Jewish holiday and then tomorrow is another half day. I'm not quite sure how the routine is going to work out. The thing that I think will be most hard on me is Tommy. He's going to miss his playmate, it'll be sad doing things and going places without her (although maybe not the grocery store). We've had so much change in our lives recently, I hope this is it for now.

B is for...

Baby
Just some more pictures of beautiful Katelyn...




Rachel and Tommy are giving her a makeover.
Bath
Baseball
Jake took the kids to the Yankees/Orioles game yesterday. Rachel wasn't too thrilled with it after all her treats were eaten, but I guess Tommy sat still and intrigued the entire time. They left at the 6th inning and Jake later learned that the Orioles won. He was happy.

"Labor Day" Weekend

KATELYN ANN IS FINALLY HERE!!! It may have only been 5 days, but when you're expecting to go early...everyday was an eternity. I was scheduled to be induced Friday morning, and I was not happy about it. I really wanted to go in on my own as I have for the other 2. But, in the end it turned out to be okay. I was super anxious about traffic, a fast labor, not getting to the hospital in time, and not being able to handle the pain. But our appointment was before rush hour, I got my epidural as soon as the pitocin got started and it went pretty good from there. I did end up having a "hot spot" where the epidural did not work and the pitocin was making my contractions back to back. I was in constant excruciating pain for about 1/2 hour until they turned down the pitocin and gave me another dose of epidural. The best part was 3 pushes and she was here...
7 lbs. 14 oz. (same as Rachel) and 20 inches long

Rachel and Tommy were SO excited to come visit her in the hospital!!


We came home yesterday afternoon. I would have stayed through this morning but I couldn't do the shared room another night. The phone calls till 1am and the snoring made for a sleepless night...along with a newborn baby :)

She is such a GOOD baby and has brought so much joy to our family already. Rachel and Tommy can't get enough of baby Kate, they want to hold her, squeeze her, change her diaper, clobber her.