It's a.....BOY!

Heee's here!!!! Samuel Carver Crumpton arrived right on time Thursday, April 2 weighing in at 7lb 5oz. We are so fortunate to have everything go so well for us. His birth was eerily similar to Corinne's, occurring very quickly with a short stay at the hospital following.

Currently, Sam, or Samuel (NOT SAMMY, please), is experiencing elevated bilirubin levels (slight jaundice) but does not look to be of much concern. He's been pounding the boob (he's an eater like his big sis), and has been doing very well. He's got a pretty good set of lungs but we rarely hear them 'cause he's quite content. I know, I know enough of the chit chat, here are the photos.

Yep, That says "7 pounds five-point-4" ounces

I would've come earlier but I had things to do...

Mostly what I do is sleep

Have you ever seen a mother look so good after labor?

Proud Papa with 'wide awake' Sam


I must say give a HUGE THANK YOU!! To Jane and C.E.. Jane has been in town for a couple of weeks since Mel's first series of contractions which turned out to be false labor. We put her to work though doing laundry, cooking, and making sure the freezer was stocked with cookies and ice cream and the liquor cabinet with bourbon-THANKS!

The Waiting Game

No baby yet, folks. Many thanks to everyone who has called and inquired on our status. We had a little action last weekend and thought the time had come. Baby decided, ummmm, nope, I like it inside here just fine, thank you. Soooo, we've been in pre-labor symptom-status for over a week now, and we're just waiting around. If you're female and a mom, you know exactly how I feel right now. :-)

Luckily, Corinne has been a typical two-year old to divert my attention. gj and I went out and purchased some baby-sized diapers and fake bottles for her to care for her baby. Wow. She has played with this baby now for hours each day. She's all about baby. Let's just see if it holds when the real one arrives. She's already a little possessive of some of the new baby equipment.

Just a few things we've been up to:

Ceily and her parents came for dinner. Any cake to Corinne is 'happy day cake' so we all sang Happy birthday to no one while the girls enjoyed their dessert.

Corinne is very into Daddy right now. She wants Daddy in the potty, Daddy to do bath, Daddy to read story, etc. Mommy gets the 'bye-bye, Mommy' like 'yer outta here!'

This is what happens when we leave Daddy in charge. hahaha

gj has helped implement craft time this weekend. Instead of coloring, though, she's very intent on taking all of the paper off of the crayons. We got a kick out of her organization. Check out the crayons themselves. All in a straight line, tips pointed down. I have no idea where she gets this. :-) Roman and I have tried to get Corinne to smile for the camera, also. Many of her shots end up looking like mugshots. This is the latest smile attempt.

Hopefully, the next post will reveal the new little one. Love to you all!

Dress up

Corinne is becoming more and more aware of her clothes these days. She often remarks on 'mama's purple shirt' or 'mama's black pants.' Then she scampers to her room to find a similar item to wear. Now that we are into serious potty training, she's become pretty adept at taking her clothes on and off. Even at 3:00am, she isn't afraid to strip to nothing (diaper and all) to yell, "pee-pee potty, dada!" The only good thing about this is that she calls for her dad and not her mom. :-)

We did, however, get a huge chuckle out of her dressing antics the other day. She had decided early on that she didn't want to wear pants opting for tights and a T only. No problem. Then she found the bathing suits. See for yourself:

It gets even better:

Have a great week!

Thank heaven for Grandmas!

This past week we had the pleasure of gj coming to play and fill in for Roman who ventured to Calloway Gardens for a work conference. (On a side note, he didn't realize that as a family, we used to vacation at Calloway for several years. I haven't heard that name in a looong time!)

I was going to don my Superwoman cape and brave the week as a single parent, but thank heaven I didn't!! What a week it turned out to be. Corinne got sick the first night gj arrived. We thought it must have been the rich food at dinner. Several days later, the stomach bug hit pregnant mama. Torture. I stayed home from work Monday. I can't imagine trying to keep up with Corinne with a stomach virus floating around my body.

By Wednesday, Corinne decided not to nap and not to go to bed. This is my wonderful night sleeper who often tells us that she's ready for bath and bed. gj and I endured at least an hour and half of crying, screaming, and rattling the door in between trying to calm her and laying down with her each night. This extended into the wee hours as she awoke 3ish and wouldn't go back to sleep. Roman and I endured this when we switched from crib to toddler bed a few months ago. It was truly hell for about 2 weeks. Now we've just moved from toddler bed to big girl bed. Here we go again.

So hat's off to gj for keeping me sane and entertaining an often tired, cranky, energetic two-year old with books, puzzles and beloved Dora. We love you!

Nothing New

Wow, we're lame, aren't we? It doesn't seem like weeks ago that we last posted. Whew. Not a whole lot going on really. Chloe had another place removed from her back. She's such a trooper! You should've seen the original t-shirt she wore. I don't think Roman appreciated it: his black Social Distortion T. Chloe wasn't supposed to be involved with any vigorous activity, and what does she do? Bounds around the backyard like she's two! I swear, this dog will always be a puppy at heart.

Sporting the US Fish and Wildlife T

Corinne is getting all sorts of changes with her bedroom. We're trying to prep her so we can use all of her furniture for the baby. So far, so good. She loves the 'big bed'! We moved the full bed into her room. There goes the guest bed.

Look, Mom, all of my toys fit on the bed!

She's also potty training pretty well. We only use diapers at home when she sleeps. Still need some work at daycare; she hates to leave playing with friends long enough to go there.

Happy Day!

Helping Pets

Saturday morning, Corinne and I loaded up the car with the donations from her party. I told her all morning that we would go see the kitty cats today (and dogs of course, but they aren't as exciting right now). I decided that in my next life I want to be a cat at Pet Helpers! I've never seen anything like it. All of the cat rooms are connected by little cat doors so the cats travel from playroom to privacy to playroom, etc. (with the exception of new and sickly ones). We were free to enter any of the playrooms full of friendly cats. Aside from the couches and windowsills full of soft pillows, they could also climb. Pictures can describe it best:

Here, kitty, kitty.

"This place is safe from the little girl."

They're everywhere!

The Loot.

Pet Helpers was very appreciative of everything, amazed that we brought in so much. So a huge shout out to everyone who donated! Thanks so much.

"Happy Day!"

I'll say what many parents exclaim, "It went by so fast!" (Sigh).

Corinne says "I'm two!"

As always we delight in her growth and understanding. She's slowly beginning to learn the potty. We're just taking that a day at a time. Her language improves daily, often repeating everything we say. (Which can be dangerous, ahem.) Colors are pretty much mastered and shapes are close behind. Counting to 10 is close behind as are singing the ABCs. We're pretty excited with her progress. She's always eager to start/learn something new.

Of course, there's always the inevitable two tantrum. If she's trying to show us that she has spirit and spunk, we got the picture! Her 'no's' are now accompanied by a crossing of the arms across her chest. I constantly grapple with making her mind and trying to ingeniously make her think that our commands were her idea. It doesn't help when her quick answer to "Do you want to go to time-out?!" is met with "yes!" Aahhhhhh. :-)

We started off Corinne's birthday singing and opening her presents. This resulted in her signing Happy Birthday to herself all day, "Happy dayyyyyyy, happy dayyyyy!"

Decked out in gj's handiwork (hat, scarf and new kitchen apron!). Check out my tricycle!

Oh yeah, I love my trike!

Corinne was a perfect hostess at her party. With 18 children under 4, we lucked out with a 68 degree day and a backyeard bash. I have to say that everything went off without a hitch. With the holidays just past, she really doesn't need extra gifts, so we offered for everyone to donate to the local Pet Helpers organization. (They are the only ones in the area that don't euthanize). The response was wonderful! We plan to take Corinne there this week to offer up the loot.

Here's a recap of yesterday:

Great to see the Burns family! It's been awhile since the days of taking our dogs to the house parties!

Greg, Catherine and Lauren break Arden into the party scene.

Chrissy and Isabella taking a break.

Maxine gives the horse a workout!

Hmmmm, where am I headed?--Charlie

Wells gets the yard tour compliments of Corinne.

Ella, Stella, Ailish and Rebekah show everyone the art of climbing.

Thanks to all friends and family for making her day so special! Love you all!