Like Brother, Like Sister

Check this out. The other day, I put an old outfit of Joel's on Nora. Do you think they look alike?!?!

Joel's 2!

On Sunday, February 7, our little man Joel turned the big 2. Since his birthday happened to fall on a weekend that Jack had drill for the Air National Guard and also since his birthday fell on Superbowl Sunday, we celebrated the weekend prior on the 30th of January. This year, we had a tractor-themed party because, as we all know, Joel is absolutely infatuated with tractors and machinery of all sorts.

We had a great time celebrating Joel's day with friends and family. It's so special that Joel has so much family here in town. Needless to say, he spent his birthday celebration surrounded by many, many people who love him including two sets of grandparents, a set of great-grandparents, an aunt, an uncle and several little friends. Papa Bruce even made Joel this amazing cake to go along with his tractor party. Watch out, Cake Boss, here comes Bruce McCall!

For his birthday, Jack and I got Joel a big pedal tractor for outside.....however, right now, the tractor resides in our living room because Joel loves it too much for me to take it to the garage. Let's just say, spring can't get here soon enough! The tractor is great entertainment for Joel though. He will literally spend hours loading and unloading things from the trailer and sitting on it (he can't quite get the pedaling concept yet). He loves it!

Of course, Joel had a great time opening his (way too many) presents, but he had an even better time blowing out his candles and chowing down on his delicious chocolate cake! Like mother, like son!

 

Even Nora had a fabulous time at Joe's party. Here's a good shot of our little party girl!

All in all, it was a great day. It's just so hard to believe that my little baby is 2 already! I know you hear this all the time, but it truly does just seem like yesterday that I was holding him in my hospital room and wondering how on earth I would learn to care for such a tiny little human being. The next thing I knew, he was running around, talking, playing and developing a little personality all his own. Time goes way too fast! I love you, Joel! You'll always be my baby!

And for good measure, here's a little vintage Joel. I love that little face!

Smarty Pants

I have to take a minute to brag on Joel a bit. Every day this little boy amazes me with his vocabulary and what he knows. I swear, I don't know how he picks this stuff up! I know all parents probably say this about their children, but I really think he's brilliant! Sorry for the obnoxious bragging...I really do realize that I'm totally being "that mom." For that, I apologize in advance.

For instance, just the other day I was upstairs putting away some laundry when Joel came wandering in my room holding one of those foam bath letters from his bath toys. "Mama, "W," he said. I turned and looked and sure enough, he was holding the letter W. He then proceeded to flip the letter over and said, "Now M." Seriously. I nearly passed out. Luckily, Jack was there to witness it, too, or he would have never believed me. Come to find out (after quizzing him on the rest of the letters), he can also identify the letters T, J, Y, O, N and U. He's also started counting and can make it up to 18 with help. Go figure. I guess watching Sesame Street has really done some good!

Joel has also had a serious sentence-making epiphany in the last couple of weeks. He literally never stops talking from the moment he wakes up in the morning and is starting to put four and five words together in sentences. He's doing very well with assigning possessives to his words (i.e. "Mommy's hot coffee"and "Joe's little tractor), and he often describes what he is doing while he is doing it ("Joel eat yogurt raisins," "Joel go play upstairs). He's also got quite the sense of humor, often catching on to sarcasm and playing the clown. I should start to pray now for the patience of his kindergarten teacher.

His instinct for problem solving and his manual dexterity also continue to amaze me. He is always taking things apart to find out how they work and pretending to "fix" things. If this kid doesn't end up working with his hands somehow, I'll be shocked.

Joel continues to love on his little sister, "Norno" (as he calls her), and it's so sweet to see him interact with her. We just love having him around and look forward to seeing what new thing he has learned each and every day.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2010, everyone! It's hard to believe we're not only 18 days into a new year, but also a brand new decade. And with a new little girl at home, I can't think of a more exciting way to start the new year. We're continuing to adjust to having two kids in the house, but we're loving every minute of it. However, having small children, of course, requires some sacrifices...for instance, Jack and I spend New Year's Eve this year hanging on the couch and trying to watch movies without falling asleep and on and off through the sounds of  a crying newborn. Funny thing is, we wouldn't have it any other way! Here's how Joel and Nora rang in the New Year:

As a side note, Nora did not sleep in Joel's bed; she was just there for a few minutes for the sake of the picture.

Speaking of Nora, the little sweetheart is continuing to grow and get smarter and more interactive every day. Lately, she's been very concentrated on learning to lift her head, which, might I add, she is getting very good at! She's settling into a bit more of a daily routine (well, as much of a routine as a month-old baby can have), which I appreciate. And actually, she's been sleeping rather well at night, giving me good four-hour stretches between feedings. We just love her so much that I could go on and on! Here's Nora at one month old:

Merry Christmas!

With all the snow last week, we still managed to have an eventful Christmas at the McCall household. In fact, we managed to get out to all the family dinners that we were scheduled to attend despite the blizzard that dumped all over Bethany on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

On Christmas Eve, we celebrated at Grandma and Grandpa Kadolphs' (Berniece and Jerry) like always. Thankfully all of the family made it safely to and from the event even though the weather outside was truly frightful. Here's a family picture from Christmas Eve...I'm shocked it turned out so good with two kids!

Both Joel and Nora had a great Christmas, and I get more and more excited when I think about the fact that  from here on out, Christmas will just become more and more fun and joyous for both kids. This year, Santa brought Joel a tool bench (among other things), which he absolutely loved! He literally played with it for more than four hours on Christmas morning, and we had to practically bribe him to open his other presents from Santa.

Later on Christmas Day, we ventured out in the snow once again to Grandma Traci and Papa Kellys' house for more festivities where Joel got to hang out with his uncles, Aunt Anna, Great Grandma Marilyn and his favorite....Great Papa Bob! Those two really have fun together and have a lot of laughs! I just love to watch them play together...Joel really brings out the kid in Papa Bob! Here's Joel and Papa Bob playing with one of his favorite presents from Grandma Traci...a broom! This boy is definitely my kid....he dragged around his "janitor's set" the whole time we were at my parents' house.

But Joel did take time out to pose for a picture with his little sleepy sister. How cute!

A couple of days after Christmas, Jack's sisters Kim and Kate and their husbands/families came to town to celebrate. Joel had a great time playing with his cousins Olivia, Megan and Aiden and even got to go to his very first movie in the theater, "Alvin and the Chipmunks," with all the McCalls. According to Daddy, he loved it! I'm sure the popcorn didn't hurt the cause at all! 

On a side note, Nora had her two-week appointment on December 28. She weighed in at a whopping 8 pounds and measured 19 1/2 inches long. There's no doubt our little girl is growing although she still seems so small to me because she's just now the size Joel was the day he was born! It's so fun to watch her grow and change before our very eyes! Here's our little girl at two weeks old: 

Welcome to the World, Nora Taylor McCall!

On December 10, 2009, Nora Taylor McCall was born at Olathe Medical Center via C-section. She was born at 9:40 a.m. an weighed in at 6 pounds, 14 ounces and 18 inches long.

The day before we were scheduled to have the surgery, the stretch from Bethany to Kansas City was absolutely dumped on with snow. In fact, we were in a blizzard warning (I didn't know there was such a thing!) for almost 24 hours prior to Nora's birth. The morning of the 9th, Jack and I enjoyed our last day as parents of one child to take Joel sledding in our yard. Even though the windchills were in the single-digits, Joel loved being outside in the snow, and we created some very special memories.

Of course, I was concerned that we wouldn't be able to make it to the hospital, but thank the Lord we were able to brave the roads and head to KC the night before the surgery. It took us almost an hour to get Cameron, but things got progressively better from there on out and we made it to KC just fine.

Having a scheduled C-section was just so different than my experience with Joel's birth. We woke up on the morning of the 10th, drove to the hospital, checked in leisurely and went up to labor and delivery. By about a quarter to nine, we were headed into the operating room where we met with the anesthesiologist, my doctor and the rest of the surgical staff. I received my epidural and spinal as Jack waited outside patiently. Then, we were in business.

The surgery began on time at about 9:30 a.m. and by 9:40, I was staring at our beautiful baby girl. Let me tell you, it was a much more enjoyable experience than going through 10+ hours of labor to end in an emergency C-section like I had with Joel. Jack was able to go with Nora to the nursery to take pictures and get her stats while the doctors worked to close me up and get me to recovery. I was back in my room by about 10:30 a.m., and the nurses brought Nora to me before 11 when I was able to really start bonding with her and nurse her for the first time.

On Friday, my parents brought Joel down to meet his baby sister. I was soooooo happy to see him, and I think the feeling was mutual even though he seemed a bit perplexed by the hospital bed and the new little baby in my arms.

By the way, I do believe that Joel and Nora look an awful lot alike in their newborn pictures. Check this out for sibling resemblance:

Joel did very well with Nora that first day and got some special attention when Jack left and took him swimming in the hotel pool for a couple of hours. Jack's parents and Elaine came down to visit on Friday evening and both sets of grandparents and Joel came back for more Nora time on Saturday before heading home.

Sometime between her birth on Thursday and Saturday afternoon, Nora lost a significant amount of weight due to the fact that my milk had not come in yet. She had gone from 6 lbs. 14 oz. to 6 lbs. 4 oz., so I began pumping colostrum to help her bulk up a bit. It worked! By the time we went home on Sunday, she was back up to 6 lbs. 9 oz. and my milk had come in fully. I suspect she'll be a chunk in no time at all! Jack, Nora and I headed home on Sunday around 1 p.m. We were very very happy to leave the hospital and be in our own environment.

Life has been very different around here since Nora's birth on December 10. Since we've come home from the hospital, it seems like sleep consists of a series of short naps as we try to adjust to having a newborn around the house again. The new normal at our household is wonderful as we've been blessed by a beautiful little girl, but also challenging at times as we try to catch sleep when and where we can and keep things as normal as possible for Joel's sake.

That said, Joel is adjusting very well to having Nora in the house. He loves to give her hugs and kisses and doesn't seem to be jealous of her at all, even when I'm taking time to nurse her (which I suspected would be a problem).

To top it all off, Nora is a fabulous little baby. She literally only cries if something is bothering her, which as it turns out, isn't much. Really, she only cries if she's overly hungry or very, very gassy and in both cases, she's pretty easily comforted. I feel so blessed to have such and easy-going little girl. Hopefully she'll stay like this! So far she's sleeping as well as can be expected for a nine-day-old baby. She gets up every two to three hours to nurse and usually goes right back to sleep...usually. I am definitely looking forward to the day when she is sleeping five or six hours at a time, but until then I'm doing my best to just enjoy the snuggle time we have when the house is quiet at night. I know they grow up too fast and these days don't last long.

5 Days!!!

Hard to believe there's only five more days until we can see our Baby Girl face-to-face. I cannot wait until Thursday! I must say, although I am a bit apprehensive about the C-section, I am more concerned about leaving Joel for four days. Ah, such is the life of a mommy! It's going to be so hard to be away from Joel for that long (by the way, I am fairly certain it will be much harder on me than it is on him!), but I am so excited to finally meet by daughter that I can hardly stand it! Such mixed emotions.

I think Joel is getting excited about the baby, too. Pretty much any time I leave him with someone else for any period of time, he thinks I'm going to get the baby. I keep telling him that one of these days, I will come home with her. In the meantime, he loves to kiss and hug on my belly and talks about the baby often. When he talks about our family, it's always "Mama, Dada, Bowl (a.k.a. Joel) and Bebe." It's hard to imagine what life will be like with two little ones to care for and love, but we are so excited to find out. And when I get overwhelmed at the thought, I just think about how much joy Joel brings into our lives and how much I love him and imagine that multiplied by two. We are truly blessed.