A Grand Welcome

Somethings in life are deserving of a grand party, and I couldn't think of a more fitting reason to celebrate than a birth.

Some people have baby showers, where you put on your pretty little sundress and gather all of your best girls together to ooh and awh over your belly and hold up little outfits for the whole room to see. This time around, that particular scenario didn't seem to fit. Ben needed a proper welcome, and one with not just women.

So we held, in Ben's honor, a welcome party. Although the forecast that day seemed threatening, with talk of dark gray clouds and winds that would whip our nicely done hair all about. Yet someone seemed to be on our side, because the skies were a beautiful shade of Carolina blue and the sun warmed the air to a toasty 80 degrees.

Our friends and family started to arrive, and the grill was fired up and ready to go. We ate until we were stuffed, hamburgers and hot dogs, potato salad, bean salad, dips and chips and this and that, and dessert, dessert, dessert.

We enjoyed the company and the conversation. And mother nature even gave us a slight cloud cover to mask to hot rays that were scorching us earlier. We passed our little easy going bundle of Ben around, and we toasted to the life of endless opportunities that lies in front of him, as he curled up and dozed off in yet another pair of arms.

It's times like these, when the people you love all gather together, that I treasure. And it touches my heart even more that they took time out of their day to come celebrate my Ben.

The weekend carried on, floating on the high left over from the party, and when our weekend spilled over into Monday, we just rolled with it. We packed up our boys and went to "choo choo park" as Wyatt now calls it. A Huge local park with shops and train and carousel rides, and plenty of space to play. Ben wrapped snug against my chest, we walked, Wyatt's hands holding each of ours, swinging his legs in the air every few steps after he called out "two three!!" Until we reached the gravel play area where he took off towards the slide, full speed ahead.

We stayed and played until the skin on Wyatt's cheeks started to turn a slight rosy pink from the sun. Then we capped off the day with an ice cream cone that melted and dripped slowly down his chin as we walked to the car.




Summer is grand, just as grand as Ben's welcome and events so grand will stay forever in my mind.

Easy Chair

Moments

It's hard not to get caught up in the craziness that is everyday life with two kids. It can be easy to not see the simple beauty, or relish in the little special moments. And most of all, it's hard to find time in the hustle and bustle to just dance.

When my swiftly growing Wyatt was born, there was a moment when he was about a week old that will forever be imprinted in my mind. We finally crawled out of bed about 10am and walked into the living room to find a snowy scene through the front window. The lawn was being covered with the very first snow of the year. I held Wyatt up, both of us in our warm pajamas, his head resting between my chin and my chest, and we watched the snow flakes drift down from the sky together. No one else in the world mattered. I remember how he smelled, I remember exactly how I felt, completely bliss full.

I've been waiting for that special moment with Ben. One that I would always remember fondly. And yesterday, I got that moment. With Wyatt down for a nap, and Justin off at work, I settled into the couch to nurse my little boy. A short while and a nice full belly later, his eyes started to get heavy, and he curled his little naked besides his diaper body into mine and drifted off to dreamland. I pulled out the laptop and went to visit my favorite photo blog, and on that site a version of Blackbird by the Beatles poured out of my speakers. And when the music reached his ears, Ben's eyes popped open, he looked around, then right at me. He suddenly looked so awake and alert. So I stood up, that warm little body wrapped snug in my arms, and we danced.

Blackbird played on repeat in the background, too many times to count, and we swayed and twirled and he held my gaze and looked deep into my eyes as if to say, "I know this, we've done this before." And indeed we have, since dancing is not a rare event in our house. And little tears of joy slid down my cheek as my eyes stayed fixed with his. And a feeling of pure happiness came over me, this was our moment.

And sometimes those special moments are meant to be shared. So when our wonderful Daddy came home from work, the eye gazing, and the dancing continued.





This weekend was full of those perfectly special, unplanned, but couldn't go any better, moments. Complete with impromptu after dinner walks to the park, carousel rides, and cuddling with Papa.

When life is good, it's really good.

Done Baby

Wyatt is quite fond of his little brother, and has been from the start, but as you can see, when he's done, he's done.

Oh The Joy

Words can not begin to describe how full my heart is, and pictures can not do justice to the perfectness that is our little Ben. It amazes me how just a few short days ago I questioned my ability to love another child. Yet now I realize that love doesn't divide with more children, instead it multiplies. Not only do I have love beyond words for Ben, yet my love for Wyatt, seeing him as a big brother, has grown as well.

I had heard it from so many people, but now I see how true it is, the moment Ben entered this world, Wyatt grew up. His gentle kisses and constant concern for his little brother melts me, and it makes my heart soar with pride to have such a wonderful son, and role model for Ben to look up to.

My labor with Ben took us all by surprise, and I have to admit we were a little unprepared as I thought I still had a couple more weeks left! Tuesday afternoon I started having contractions, not painful, and not regular, just there. They lasted on and off for the next 24 hours. Never too painful and sometimes 4-6 minutes apart, and sometimes stopping for hours at a time. Wednesday afternoon at my doctors advising we headed to the hospital to be checked out since my contractions were close, just not painful. Of course when we arrived they stopped completely! I was prepared to be sent home, but after they monitored the baby and checked me they told me I was 6-7cm dilated already! They decided to keep me because they thought things would go quickly from there, although I was preparing myself for a long road ahead. About 6pm my doctor came in and broke my water. I was still feeling ok and after telling Justin how hungry I was he went and snuck me some peanut M&Ms from the vending machine. Suddenly about 15 minutes later, I could care less about those contraband M&Ms. My contractions were coming in threes, each one progressively worse with about 30 seconds in between the triplet pattern. I instantly felt like this was more painful then all 18 hours of my labor with Wyatt. About 7:30pm I felt like I couldn't do this anymore. I asked to be checked for progress so then I could make a decision on trying something for pain. The nurse told me I was at 8cm, so too far for IV pain meds. I then had another contraction so she was waiting for it to end so we could finish discussing any relief when I told her I have to push. Obviously she was not convinced that anything had changed in the past couple minutes and kept talking to me, I then told her, "I can't not push!" My doctor, who had just finished a delivery next door, happened to pop his head in, and came over quickly to check me and quickly announced to get another nurse in here and get things set up. My body took over, and let me tell you what a powerful feeling that was. In one short contraction and only 3 pushes, Benjamin was laid on my chest. I was in complete shock that he was here already, that it even took me a good minute to see if we had a boy or girl!! Things happened so quickly that we hadn't had a chance to call family so the only one there besides Justin and I was his Mom, who had just happened to come a few minutes earlier. However after a few phone calls we were surrounded by the ones we love, all to help welcome baby Ben to the world.

I am definitely outnumbered in our family now, but I feel so blessed to have my three wonderful boys in my life, and right now, I could not ask for more.

It's A BOY!!

We are so excited to announce the arrival of our little boy.

Benjamin Riley Otness was born June 23, 2010 at 7:45pm

He weighed in at 7 pounds, 8ounces and was 20.5 inches long

We are home and doing wonderfully. Once the dust settles I will post more!

Rootin'-est Tootin'-est Cowboy

Wyatt's cousin Haydn gave him this cowboy hat the other day and he has been pretty insistant on wearing it when ever he pleases. Often it is the only thing he is wearing, at least he wears it well!

The Countdown Is ON

Tuesday marks the completion of week 36 of my pregnancy - somehow, against my wishes, time has flown by.

With only four weeks left until my due date I have found myself in a completely different mindset then had when I was pregnant with Wyatt. I am so excited to meet this baby and hold them in my arms, and for Wyatt to have a brother or sister to play with. Yet at the same time I feel like I am searching for more time to spend with Wyatt as an only child.

He has always had 100% of my attention, and him and I are a team. We have our routine, our special things that we do together, and I feel slightly guilty about how his world is going to soon change. From day to day these feelings change, oh the joys of pregnancy emotions! Yesterday I was smiling from ear to ear thinking about how I am giving Wyatt one of the best gifts anyone can get. And by this time next year they will be outside playing and getting dirty together. Maybe it's that I feel if he finds a new play partner, that I will be squeezed out a little, but I guess no matter how many kids we have, Wyatt and I will always have a special bond.

He is definitely my special nut. I'm not sure where he gets it from, but I see frequent calls from school in the future regarding my class clown! I sure wonder if this baby will keep us laughing as much as Wyatt does, or will they be more of the quiet type!?

Memorial Day Weekend

There is no better way to ring in summer, then with a piping hot Memorial Day weekend. And what is Memorial Day without water, and a sunburn.

Somewhere I got the idea that I was supermom, and decided to take not only Wyatt, a puppy, and our other dog out to the pond, but also my 6 and 8 year old nephew and niece... by myself. They all play so well together, especially Wyatt and Haydn, you would think they were the same age out there throwing rocks and splashing around together. Several hours, and a nice golden glow later, we headed back towards town, everyone surprisingly in one piece and happy.

While Wyatt settled down for a much needed nap, the kids invited the neighbor girl over and they spent the next hour running through the sprinkler in the front yard, jumping and yelling, and laughing.

I am not a fan of Justin's rotating schedule, and I really wish he had consistent days off. He did happen to have one day off this past weekend. So although he wasn't able to join us for the first trip to the pond. We decided to pack up the three of us and the dogs and head out again the next day. It heated up to the mid 80's and the cool water felt refreshing against our legs as we waded slowly in. Apparently the sun was a little too hot for my skin and I ended up a little red, but I enjoyed every minute of the heat.

And nothing caps of a perfect weekend like meeting up with old friends for a little play date at the park. Sometimes I think the play dates are more for us then them, either way we enjoyed ourselves.

Friends, Sun, Water, what a wonderful way to ring in the summer. And what a wonderful way to honor those who fought for our country, by enjoying the freedom that we have.