Nana for Nanny

We just got the best news.........my parents are moving to Cleveland and my mom will be Jackson's nanny! I can't begin to tell you how excited we are and my mom is equally excited. Now if I could only get excited about having to go back to work..........

and then there were four

people keep asking us if we are done having children or if we want more. and perhaps, we've happened upon that decision rather unexpectedly.

NO- im not pregnant.

Rather, we had an experience this past weekend that changed our outlook a little, and gave us some perspective on what it would be like to have more kids...

Early Saturday morning, I received a call from a friend in need. She and her husband had to go somewhere urgently and had no place to leave the children. Without question, i told her to drop them off....i figured it would be fun! a baby to cuddle with (only 2 weeks old!!!!), and a playmate for levi (another 3 year old).

I was right, it was a LOT of fun!!!!
BUT- it was also A LOT of work!!

Jeff had been on call Friday night, so he did not get home until 10:30am, was awake for an hour, and then took a nap himself. So essentially, I was taking care of all four children alone from 7:30am onward....

The older ones occupied themselves really well, but it seemed that whenever one of the babies needed something, one of the older kids would start crying and need me to help fix the disassembled train track or negotiate the terms of toy sharing or read a book to them.
And when one baby wanted to eat, of course the other one needed to eat too! I found myself feeding the baby cradled in my right arm holding the bottle in my right hand and feeding Tali baby food with the spoon in my left hand. Needless to say, we were all a bit messy in the end.

i describe the situation as semi-organized chaos.

we even took a walk down the street (when jeff was home AND awake) to easily occupy all four children at the same time, since we strapped each and everyone into their own seat in our two double strollers so there was no escaping...

My biggest accomplishment of the day was getting ALL FOUR CHILDREN (PLUS MY HUSBAND) to nap at the SAME TIME!!!!

I put the boys in bed together and told them to go to sleep. I heard them giggling on the monitor a few minutes later and went back into the room to tell them that if they did not go to sleep right NOW, that i would have to end the "sleepover" and take Levi's friend home (yah right, home to an empty house- but they didnt know that!).....and then, i did not hear another peep for over 2.5 hours!!!!!

I nursed tali and put her in her crib, where she slept soundly for almost 3 hours....and then I brought the baby to the basement, fed her a big bottle, and swaddled her and put her in the bouncer we keep downstairs, where she slept for 2 hours also!!!! I relaxed watching TV on the LCD in the basement- well deserved peace and quiet.....

Once the afternoon came and my friend came to pick up the kids, I realized how crazy the day actually was and how hard it was to take care of four children. It was more like 2 sets of twins (although tali and the baby are six months apart, they both need to be fed and carried and entertained).
I had a ton of fun while I was doing it, but also experienced a lot of relief when it was over! Having 4 kids would be hard work!

I know that if we choose to have another child, they would be spaced adequately so it wouldnt be like taking care of twins, but still- kids of all ages have needs and who knows how complicated and difficult it would be to fulfill all those needs at the same time!

And what happens if we get pregnant with twins???? i think chaos would be an understatement.

We are still up in the air about the decision, but more and more things are coming together to maybe say we're leaning towards keeping our perfect family of four a family of four.

Look Out World - We Have Our FIrst Forward Movement!

Elliot's been very active for a while now, and he has several tricks down pat. He can roll. He can sit up. He can spin 360 degrees on his belly, and he can grab all kinds of stuff and waive them around. And now added to the portfolio - moving forward. I don't say crawling because I am not sure it technically was. But, this evening after his bath he really REALLY wanted the baby vitamin bottle nearby. He wanted it so badly that he tucked his knees up under him and pushed forward. Then, when he still wasn't quite close enough to grab it, he repeated the steps again until he could finally swing his arm out and reach it. Of course, after we got over our shock we immediately set up the scenario again and he repeated the whole exercise twice.

Guess we better get our child-proofing done asap!

Aye, A Stressful Dream

Dreaming of giving birth is awesome. No, actually it is the opposite of awesome - nawsome I guess. I had a dream the other night that I was giving birth to baby number two - and Elliot was still only 6 months old. I was so stressed out in the dream and I kept asking Bobby why we were doing this so soon. I could feel the contractions. It sucked. I think this whole teething thing has me out of whack.

Now, to go tend to the screech owl upstairs. Don't let that scare you Cara, it's still awesome to be a mom.

mommy necklace

When Levi was born, Jeff bought me a beautiful David Yurman necklace with a big heart on it (Levi means "my heart" in Hebrew).

So, when Tali was born, he wanted to out-do himself and he bought me the fanciest charriol bracelet i could have ever imagined. While it was absolutely beautiful, gorgeous, and perfect, i had to return it because it was something i would only wear once in a long while, and we could use that $$$$ to do a LOT more useful things around the house and in our lives.

Jeff was on a quest to get something nice for me in honor of tali's birth (that didnt cost the same as a small car).

I have always loved the "mommy necklaces" that ive seen on people and in stores- little delicate charms with the names of the children hanging on a silver chain. im not a "delicate" sort of person, but i really liked that style of necklace.

but i wanted something slightly different than the normal ones ive seen....

we searched for months and couldnt come up with the perfect thing, until a couple weeks ago when jeff ordered THIS:



It arrived today.
a delicate silver charm necklace with levi and tali in hebrew.

i love it!!!!

the woman does great work. her stuff can be found here.

Halloween's A'Comin'

We debated back and forth. Do we buy a halloween costume for Elliot this year? Do we just dress him in black and orange? Or do we do nothing? I think we initially made a tacit decision to skip the costume because we would be spending the money, really, just to amuse ourselves. But then we were at Old Navy over the weekend and we both locked our eyes on a dragon and decided we just had to put him in it - hell, why shouldn't we be entitled to a little amusement. Besides, aren't we really just creating wonderful memories (and photos, and video) that we'll have for years to come? So, this year, for his very first halloween, Elliot is going to be a dragon. We've already tried it on him and he looks super awesome. So, if you find yourself on Eaton road this year, stop on by and see our little guy.

Jackson Ari

We are so in love with him and its hard to remember life without him even though he's not even 1 month old. He loves to snuggle, listen to books being read to him, listen to music (current fave is B is for Bob - a kids Bob Marley CD my sister got him) and bath time. Being his mom is the most amazing thing I have ever done and I'm loving every second I spend getting to know him.

A quick version of the birth.....

I went to Hillcrest on Tuesday night to be induced and pitocin was started at 645am on Wednesday morning. Pitocin was incredibly effective and I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes that were lasting 60-90 seconds. We had a doula who was fabulous and I highly recommend it if you're considering going natural. I was able to get to 5cm through some rough contractions but as the pitocin was turned up again at that point I could no longer hold off. I had an epidural and immediately I was able to relax. The doctor broke my water and I tried to get some much needed rest. After a few hours I was at 8cm but the doctor said he thought my pelvic opening seemed small. Not really what you want to hear when you're thinking a baby has to come out. After another 2 hours I was still only 8cm and the baby was starting to have some decels. After laboring for 14 hours I was on my way to the OR for a c-section. AT 8pm on 9-9-09 Jackson Ari arrived weighing 6 pounds 8 ounces and he was perfect. I was in love from the moment I heard him cry. I LOVE being a mom. Joey has been incredible and I couldn't ask for a more loving husband and father to our son.

First Tooth!

We've been waiting and now finally it has arrived! For a number of weeks, Elliot has been biting hard on everything he can get his hands on. And about a week ago it looked like something was going on. Then on Friday I felt a sharp little nubbin starting to poke through. How exciting!