Two Weeks

Can you believe it's been two weeks since Eliza was born? (and maybe a couple more days too.) We can't quite believe it and we've been living with her the whole time! Transition to life with two has been relatively smooth. Hayden had some difficult moments in the first few days, throwing some especially awesome tantrums for us and the grandparents, but generally she's handled the arrival of Eliza quite well. As it was with Hayden these first two weeks have been a blur of grandparent visits, nursing and not much sleeping so I don't have a lot to narrate. I think I'll just post some pictures from the last couple weeks, with captions of course, and then I'll need to go feed Ellie before heading to bed. (yes we switch back and forth between Eliza and Ellie; we're still try - feel free to use whatever name works best for you!)
putting on her 'going home' outfit in the hospital. aren't those ladybug feet the cutest?!!

"hi baby!"
as Jason pointed out, Eliza is going to have a very different perception of personal space than Hayden...

giving baby Eliza a sisterly hug.

hanging in the crib

Mommy and her girls



Eliza meets Lachlan!
Eliza was actually the last baby of the 'preggo posse' to make an appearance. Lachlan upstaged her (despite being due 2 weeks later) by about 4 days when he arrived on Sept 20.

getting her feet wet - at least someone enjoyed all the rain we've been having!

After being cooped up for most of a week with rain, we decided to brave the cool weather and go to Harner Farm to check out the pumpkins and ice cream before Grandma and Poppop left. Hayden loved pulling the pumpkins around in the wagon.


Eating ice cream with daddy.

Snarfing the last bit of Mommy's ice cream cone.

This is the chosen one!

Posing with Poppop and Grandma before they headed back to NC.

Showing off a snazzy big sister present. Thanks Mrs. Kurtz!
Just after her first (sponge) bath.

what big eyes you have Eliza!

After Grandma and Poppop left, Grammy and Granddad came to visit. Again, the weather was quite yucky but we did manage a visit to a local park in some sunshine. We even let Eliza out of the wrap to enjoy the warmth!

Posing with Mommy at the top of the slide.
Cutie pie Hayden!

And one last picture of our two favorite girls. They keep us busy but we love it!

It's Official!

Even as the ticker counter says there are 3 more days to go, it's official - Hayden is a BIG sister! Little sister Eliza Rutledge DeRousie (probably to be called Ellie) was born two days ago (9-24-09) at 6:47 pm. She weighed 8 lbs 12 oz and measured 20 inches long. Both mom and baby are doing great!

Miss Eliza Rutledge DeRousie

Hayden isn't quite sure what to think of her new baby sister. She came to visit the next day for lunch and was more excited by the opportunity to eat snacks and lunch (LOVED the graham crackers we had nabbed for her from the snack room) and the chance to stare out the window at the new hospital wing being constructed. She did consent to hold Baby Eliza for a few minutes and was very careful with her. Even gave her a little head hug (which we caught on camera!). But she didn't want to kiss her or even pay that much attention to her. Oh well. It was a good start. She did make note that Mommy no longer had a baby in her tummy; that the baby was out. :)

Enjoy the photos!

meeting Eliza with Daddy (I don't think she busted out a 'my daddy' yet)

looking at the baby burrito with Mommy

proud of her new (long sleeve) big sister shirt. She knew what it said!

Enjoying lunch on Mommy's bed

first family photo of four!

I think this bodes well for the building of a beautiful sister relationship...

here comes a Kenyon Lady

Back in May, when we went to our 10th year reunion at Kenyon, we decided to buy Hayden a Kenyon t-shirt. Unlike the selection of PSU apparel, there wasn't too much in her size, so we ended up with this cute little t-shirt/shorts combo. I have wanted to get a picture of her in it, maybe in an Adirondack chair, but just haven't been able to since she doesn't wear it much. For some reason a couple days ago, I was able to convince her to put on the whole outfit and I even got to take some pictures. (AND she even selected the PURPLE crocs to go with them. Thanks Aunt Lacey for such a great birthday present!)

Doesn't she look like she's ready to sign up for the Kenyon Ladies soccer team? Hopefully by the time she'd be on the team, they'd actually be good!!! (and Hayden would be the star, of course!)
After we played outside with the soccer ball for a bit, we decided to walk up to the park. Nothing too remarkable about the trip, except perhaps the amount of purple Hayden was wearing, but I still took a couple pictures. I love this one of her in the tree, with the sun light behind her. She climbed through that V over and over until I told her I was done helping her.

And since I've been working on her baby album, trying desperately to get it done before #2 comes along (I know, I'm a procrastinator, but it's looking good now I'm actually working on it!), I thought it was funny to see how BIG she is in the swing these days. She's not quite ready to 'pump' and propel herself yet, but she holds on and has so much more control. She's even been on 'big kid' swings on occassion. Amazing how fast she's growing up!

(March 2008)

Celebrating with Daddy

Yesterday was Jason's birthday, hence the little Smilebox I posted after I had sent it to him at work. Hayden and I had a good time helping him celebrate. We met up with him after Hayden was done with school (second day went well!) and took him to lunch. Hayden really enjoyed eating pizza.
Then in the afternoon, we did all sorts of preparations for the 'party' in the evening. We wrapped presents (when do kids learn to use tape, because Hayden does not quite get the concept yet), we iced whoopie pies, we decorated his card and made a birthday sign for the door. And then when he got home, Hayden greeted him with a big hug and "happy birthday daddy!" (She's come a long way from only wishing 'happy poppop' to anyone with a birthday.)
We were going to have a picnic for dinner, but ended up just going to the park (which supposedly had bocce ball courts to try out his new set again - we never did find them) and then grabbing dinner to bring home. Hayden loved having daddy along on a park trip - usually it's just me. And I got to take pictures! She even went on a really big slide. You'll notice that one picture is from the bottom - trying to capture the slide action - but then the next is from the top. Hayden got a little scared and I climbed up to assist her. You'd think she was done, after being scared, but she was ready to go again! At least till she reached the top and then she tried to turn around again.

Then we announced it was time to go get dinner at Jason's place of choice but Hayden decided she wanted to sit on the bench for just a bit. Eventually we managed to convince her to go get dinner at "two guys" (her name for it) and she thought the peanuts in a shell were pretty cool.
Finally we made it home for dinner, presents and whoopie pies and all was good. Notice that in the picture showing Hayden helping open presents that Jason looks to be laughing hysterically. The reason is because he pointed to a package and said to Hayden, should we open this one? And she responds, it's a watch! She's going to need to work on her sneakiness if she keeps hanging out with me! I'm all about surprises!

(and that's not even the first time she told him we got him a watch. We were at the mall this weekend, and glanced at a display of watches and she says, daddy birthday watch, or something similar. I could have tried to play it off but I was laughing too hard at her both remembering and spilling the beans. And since Jason wants to know about presents immediately, he just kept asking her about anything else we had gotten for him! Fun times.)

Mmmmmm, don't those whoopie pies look delicious! (They were!) Jason requested them instead of a cake which seemed quite amazing to me. But he was happy and that's what's important on a birthday!

I think Hayden may be requesting whoopie pies on her birthday next year. She seemed to enjoy them!

Happy Birthday Jason/Daddy! I hope you had a great day! Next year there'll be two little munchkins around to steal cake from you...

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Make a Smilebox greeting

First day of school

Hayden started school today (hence the middle of the morning posting). She's going to a two-year-old class, that currently only has 6 kids in it, 3 mornings a week. Hopefully she'll really like having some time with kids her own age while I will get to spend some one-on-one time with the baby. A win-win for everyone!

This picture was of her heading into meet-your-teacher on Wednesday. The 'ponies' didn't last very long once she tried on some of the dress up clothes, but she looked super cute going in.
And then today, when it's a high of 56 and rainy, we focused more on bundling up than cuteness in the clothes selection, but at least she'll be comfy at school! (she looks so different with her hair down as opposed to pulled back, doesn't she?!)

Labor Day Fun

Even though I didn't go into labor on Labor Day weekend, we still had a productive and fun three-day weekend. Jason touched up the ceiling paint, we moved the furniture in (bed, dresser, etc), got Hayden set up in her new 'big-girl' bed, put up our tree on the wall, sorted and washed newborn clothes, and even managed to host one more social gathering before we retreat into family time to take care of a newborn. Quite the weekend! We didn't end up taking too many pictures, which is probably okay. I mean, how exciting is it to see a picture of us sorting and washing newborn clothes. But I do have a few to share of the mostly finished nursery, the party, and Hayden's big-girl bed.

First the nursery, which I'm sure you are eager to check out. We have transformed what was my study, painted green, into a lovely little nursery, painted tan. I was happy to see the green go - I picked it out in the beginning but never really liked it. It looks MUCH better in the neutral color. And the tree decal we found is awesome! It's hard to really capture a small room in pictures to show the colors and set up and all, so you'll just have to imagine it all together.

Hayden likes having the nursery set up because she has discovered a new room to open/close the door to (a rather annoying interest she's picked up lately) and she likes playing with the baby toys we gathered up.

I still don't know if Hayden really gets that there will be a new baby living with us soon. It could be quite the adjustment for her. She actually shows little interest in baby Logan, besides peering at him for a few moments. (though she did hold him again the other day, with plenty of spotting, and did great.) And lately, when Blizzard (the dog that we've had the WHOLE time she's been around) has crawled in Jason's lap while on the couch, Hayden has started protesting, 'my daddy, my daddy.' So a new baby might be tough to handle but I'm sure she'll survive.

After all, we were a bit concerned about moving her to a new bed and she has handled it splendidly. She has slept in it for a whole week now and has done great! So far no issues with getting up or anything. Sometimes it does seem to take her a while to fall asleep for nap or at night. We'll hear some thumping, or a book singing, or our favorite, 'cover me up! cover me up!' but she's done remarkable well. Of course, she still hasn't quite the hang of sleeping like a normal person. When we check on her, we often come away from the door laughing hysterically (though silently) at whatever position she's gotten herself into. I'm too scared to take a picture, but we've found her sleeping perpendicular to the bed, with her feet actually touching the floor, at the complete opposite end of the bed AND one time, underneath her pillow. But she sleeps and seems well rested so we don't complain or try to change her habits! Here's a picture of her new bed, with a very proud Hayden.

And finally, a few pics from our party. It was the usual grill out type gathering with our usual crowd so I won't bore you with details. The main deviation was that Hayden and I had given Jason an early birthday present - a snazzy new bocce set - and after we ate dinner, we all walked down to the park to play. It's a nice set if I may say so, solid heavy balls, and Jason even won his first match with them!
Hayden begging for the patonk (sp?) when we first got the set out. She wasn't a big fan at first, since she wasn't allowed to hold the balls, and so we walked over to another section of the park to go swing.
Measuring out who's closest. We used the offically sanctioned "foot" measurement system.
Noah was also uninterested in bocce, but he scaled to new heights in the meantime!
Eventually Hayden and Noah did stop to watch the game a little bit and had fun sitting together on the bench.
Towards the end of the game, Hayden found a spare ball that she was allowed to carry around. It's 'heavy' she said!
As the game finished up, Hayden requested to be spun by daddy. Noah thought it looked fun, so he asked his mom to do the same. I tried to get them in the same photo, but this was as close as I could get due to the necessary distance for safety. Notice Blizzard up and at 'em as the fun police - there was a lot of giggling going on!

Back at the ranch, we all enjoyed brownies for dessert. While they may seem a little strange when you know the secret ingredient, they are SO good. I've made them twice recently and I'm trying to come up with an excuse to make more! and everyone else must have liked them too because there was hardly any left in the dish.

So that was our Labor Day weekend. A fun, productive, and wonderful three days. Now we just continue counting down till Baby Deux arrives!