Our boys were fortunate enough to see Santa Claus not once, but TWICE this year.
The first photo attempt Brock had just finished up swim class and his eyes were burning red. Brian was not too keen on the way the pictures turned out. And Cade looked frightened. I can't blame him. The photographer's assistant used this hideous sounding clacking things to get the kids attention. I'm not a pro in the Santa picture taking department, but I was Santa's Helper in the 9th grade and I will tell you this - I would have never chosen such a toy to encourage children to smile. Clack Clack Clack Clack Clack Clack - oh the noise! It still haunts me. But I digress...
Photo One
So, two days later, after selecting two more equally adorable outfits, I braved the mall again. This time, Brock did not have swim class in the morning so his eyes weren't blazing red. Cade, however, needed to be woken up from a pretty solid nap. He was less than pleased with me. So again, he looks frightened (could be from the clacking toy again).
Much to my surprise, Santa did not wear his hat. Of course in the frenzy of fixing hair, adjusting sweaters, and focusing my camera lens, I didn't take notice. That was until we were finished and reviewing the series of pictures you are forced get to buy. When I inquired about his hat, the charming teenager working the cash register simply said he gets too hot in his hat so you need to request that he wear it. What the...????
Photo Two (Santa looking cheesy sans his hat)
Yo, Santa, if you can't hack the job, then don't accept the job offer. Just sayin'...
Merry Christmas from the McCormicks!
How did four months pass? Geez, this kid is growing up way too fast.
Overall, Cade is doing fantastic. He is happy, healthy and an absolute flirt. I am in big trouble in a few years, my boys are chick magnets! Just this week, he started sleeping about 10 hour stretches in the night. It might be a short-lived phase but for now, I will enjoy my 6-7 hours of REM.
Coming in at 25.25 inches tall (62%) and 15 lbs., 4 oz. (45%), Cade is quite a love. But what's not to love?
I'll tell you what's not to love. Vaccination shots. Poor Cade had three shots in his thighs and one oral vaccination. He didn't enjoy this - at all. Poor thing wailed and wailed. Fortunately he won't remember these shots and we don't have to return for two more months!
Brock and Cade are both in stages where they are beyond adorable. These boys are full of life and definitely keeping us on our toes. A pure joy, indeed!
Brock is all about using his imagination. "Hurry, run, the big bad wolf is coming!". Or, during story time, which is a part of our bedtime routine, he drags out all of his stuffed animals and we have to incorporate them into some kind of adventure. Naturally, Brock is the main character and these guys are his sidekicks. Brian has become quite the improv story teller. I'm still working on my character details. I prefer to be the closer, and in our home, that is the person who sing songs to him (terribly off key) after stories. That way I get an extra good night kiss before lights out. :-)
Cade is a big fan of blowing bubbles and babbling on and on, as if he has something incredibly important to say. Hmm, maybe he does and we just don't know it - yet. Whatever he might be saying, I can't stop gazing into his big blue eyes. This momma is madly in love.
Okay, we are almost two weeks late in posting, but Cade turned three months on November 17th. Wow, time is really zipping by. It's been hard to watch Brock be incredibly disappointed in having a brother (he hits, yells, tells him to go away...the list goes on and on) but we are confident in time they will be the best of friends.
Back to Cade, he is really cute right now. Giggles, coo's, squeaks and he lights up when you greet him. He loves to watch his big brother (maybe out of fear?), his eyes follow his every move. Unfortunately, Cade also caught his first of many colds. With Brock in preschool, we're preparing for at least one year of runny noses. The only upside to Cade being sick was that we took him to the doctor to make sure he didn't have an ear infection and he was weighed. He's growing fast - 14 lbs., 6 oz. and 23 inches. Will he be taller than Brock? Time will tell. For now, we focus on his adorable smile.
Let me start by saying this might be the first time in McCormick history that we have actually had our decorations and tree up before December 15th. It's a Christmas miracle! Actually, it's because we will be out of town on Christmas so we figured if we're going to do this, let's do it now because it's all coming down by the 23rd of December...
Every Christmas we buy a small 1-2 foot sad looking, no one will take me home "Charlie Brown" type tree that is small enough to sit on a table. Some years the ornaments looked bigger than the actual tree. One year, we felt compelled to buy something because it was Christmas after all (translation: holiday peer pressure) It's not that we're Grinchy folk, we're just not into all the extra "stuff" we need in our tiny house. We also don't buy a ton of gifts for everyone so we don't feel compelled to get into the "holiday spirit" by spending Black Friday standing in line at department stores (now that's something to be thankful for!). Aren't the holidays supposed to be about family, food and reflecting on the joys in your life? Not how many toys or trinkets you rake in? Okay, I'll step off the soap box and continue with my original post...
This year we've decided to mix it up and get a real tree! However, we have Brock, our mass of destruction of a toddler, and that can create a litany of concerns. There was NO WAY we would be able to have a decorated tree in our house because he would destroy it - in seconds. Not to mention we are challenged with space in our tiny abode. So we found a wonderful compromise. A tree outside our living room window that sits on our front porch. That way we could enjoy the beauty of a 6-foot tree without cramming it into our home. And, it's safe from destructive inquisitive toddler hands.
So off we went to buy our big tree. Brock is still too young to fully understand the concept of Christmas, Santa, etc. And he definitely didn't understand why we neededto buy a tree. And somehow he thought that bringing a tree home meant he would meet Santa. Huh? How does all of that connect?
Anywhooo....
After setting up the tree and putting lights on it, Brock was pretty excited. Cade slept through most of the events of the day (hence no photos of the little guy). I'm pretty sure Cade could care less about the tree so this year it's "All About Brock" (wait, isn't that every year?). Eh, whatever...
This
morning the boys were in a fashion show in the Kid's Dept at
Nordstrom. It was really cute to see the kids strutting their stuff
down the runway. Brock had fun in spite of this really annoying kid
behind him in line who kept making weird faces at him (seriously, where
was his mother?). Cade had no idea what he was in for, but was agreeable
and looked darn cute in his outfit.
While the kids walked down the runway, the announcer read their Bios. Prior to the event they had to answer the following questions:
1. What are your favorite things to do?
2. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Brock's responses:
1.Watch Stanford's marching band and play with my trucks
2. Be a garbage man, a dancing tree (Stanford's marching band mascot) or a fire man
Cade's responses:
1. Drink milk
2. Taller than my brother
So what's next for these tiny models? Paris? Milan? Not exactly...but we sure had fun pretending to be super models for one day.
At almost three months, Cade enjoys following us around the room with his eyes and smiling when he hears our voices. He also loves to join in on story time. Brian is great about engaging him with Brock. I tend to keep them separated for fear of attack from Brock (this happens all too often). When Cade is in a particularly chipper mood, he even rambles on in baby speak. It's adorable. But I'm not biased in the least bit. I think I have the two most adorable children in the world. But what mother doesn't say that about her kids?
I'm not a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I certainly try to take a decent photo. Motivated by their matching sweaters (a gift from a friend of my Aunt), I knew I wanted to take pictures of the boys but wasn't sure when I'd be able to. The weather the past few weeks had been temperamental- one day 85 degrees (too hot for sweaters), the next cloudy and raining. Thankfully, on this particular day, the weather was agreeable (finally!) so I gussied up the boys in their sweaters and off we went (I had a friend helping) to one of our local parks. Of the 30+ pictures I took, a few turned out okay. I guess I'll keep my day job for now, but it sure is fun taking pictures of my boys.
We got some funny looks from walkers on the trail. One said they thought Brock was holding a doll until they got closer. Another just lingered for an awkwardly long time. Fortunately we only spent a few minutes taking pictures before Brock got bored and Cade spit up all over himself.
That's a wrap! Off went the sweaters and over to the playground we went where Brock ran into a buddy of his, Emily, from swim class. Although it was time to go home for dinner, I figured he deserved a little play time after his tough photo shoot. Models can be so demanding! :-)
Since when did Halloween take up two full weeks worth of activities?
It started with a trip to the local pumpkin patch. Brock had a blast
bouncing in the jumpers, riding the train, and playing on bales of hay.
He almost forgot the sole purpose for being there; to buy a pumpkin.
He chose a little orange and white pumpkin. Needless to say, we spent
more money on train rides and jumpers than the silly pumpkin. But he
sure had fun. Cade slept the entire time.
Our next big pre-Halloween fun was Brock's preschool's fall festival. They transformed the preschool into a fair with games, face painting, and a potluck, including a popcorn cart (who doesn't love the smell of freshly popped corn?) and apple cider. The kids had fun while the parents and teachers mingled. Brock was thrilled to have a green truck painted on his face.
On Halloween his preschool had a pajama party in lieu of wearing Halloween costumes. I thought that was clever and the kids loved wearing their PJ's all day. I'm pretty sure the teachers didn't mind, either.
After a fun filled day at school (they ate pumpkin waffles!) Brock transformed into a dinosaur and we hit the neighborhood for a little trick or treating. No pictures were taken by any of the parents (we were with a group) because we were all too busy chasing our sugar filled children.
Oh, and in case you're wondering what Cade did on Halloween, yep, you guessed it. He slept.
Life is...busy. I wonder why? Two kids, perhaps? Well, I'm here now and have a few minutes (literally!) to update our family blog.
Cade turned two! Geez, that was almost a month ago. See, told ya we were busy! At the two month check up, Cade was weighed and given three types of immunizations. Poor kid, who wants that - and no lollypop afterward?
Brock started preschool today. Wow, we didn't know how hard this was going to be on us. Both Brian and I agreed we have a little anxiety built up in our systems. Is he going to be okay? Will he make friends? Is he going to cry? Will be resent us for taking away his beloved nanny? So many things to worry about...
Last week we shadowed his class to help with the transition, as most of the children in his cohort had known each other from their former daycare program. Brock has been with our nanny, Cris since he was 5 months old, so needless to say, he has a lot of adjustments to conquer.
When we shadowed last week, he cried hysterically when he thought I was gone (I was in the next room changing Cade's diaper). Seeing his reaction, the teachers and I had a conference and they provided some great tips to help us get him more comfortable, and they all had him on their radars this morning for the official first day. What a great team of teachers!
Armed with his new backpack that was filled with his "friends" Big Bird, Elmo, Cookie Monster and Zoe, he knew he had some comforts from home. We also put some pictures of family in his backpack in case he needed to "see" us throughout the day. His teachers are prepared to pull out the backpack in case of a crying emergency. We also took a family picture so that he can place it on the school's family tree wall (another suggestion from his awesome teachers).
Fingers crossed that when I pick him up in the afternoon he is happy and ready to share his tales of the day. I'm going to be pacing the halls and biting my nails until pick up time.
Cade has already been with us for a month now. Time if flying by. It's been a tough adjustment having two kids, especially when one of those kids is an energetic toddler! But we take it in stride and are doing the best we can. Cade is a pretty happy go lucky kind of fellow - except when he's hungry or needs to poop. Then he cries until the crisis is resolved.
We decided early on if Cade could survive the first month at home with his daily beatings from Brock, then he would be just fine. Brock's favorite thing to do is go up to Cade and say (very sweetly), "Hi Little Guy" then pulls his hair, or grabs his feet or hands and squeezes them tightly. Ugh!!
And of course Brock is our man of action. He has SO much personality and SO much energy we don't know how to keep up. We want to laugh and scream at the same time! His favorite things right now are music, cars, trucks, trains, airplanes and marching bands. He loves to watch sports on TV, especially football for the marching bands and golf. I'm sure both sets of grandparents are giddy knowing he likes to watch golf. He also loves to sing and chat about the most random things. It's all too sweet.
Welcome to the world, Cade Harper McCormick!
August 17, 2012 7:07 am
8 lbs., 1 oz.
20 inches
Much to my surprise, we had another BOY and we are delighted. Clearly I
wasn't channeling my inner Mommy, as I was 100% certain we were having a
girl. Who cares! We have a boy and he's healthy and gorgeous (not
biased at all...).
We had a c-section planned for August 17th at 9:00am. But like all Logan/McCormick family members, Cade was stubborn and didn't want to wait. I went into labor around 1:00am and by 3:00am was having contractions 3 minutes apart. We were at the hospital by 4:00am.
Similar to Brock's arrival, Cade decided to make his delivery equally, if not more challenging. Did I mention we are a household of stubborn people?
Because I went into labor, Cade started to move down the birth canal. Brock also did this and they both got stuck. As our OB stated during delivery (in a panic, I might add), my pelvis to too narrow and his shoulders were too broad. She had to call in "any available doctor" to help with the delivery. A herd of people shuffled into the operating room and a lot of hands were in my body holding various organs and pulling and tugging. Cade's umbilical cord was also wrapped around his neck twice. So, if we didn't already have a planned c-section, we would have had one anyway. The reason we had planned a c-section was because my uterus and bladder attached to the scar tissue from my first c-section with Brock. However, it turned out that the scar tissue was much thicker than anticipated (they said it was as hard as cement) so the cauterizing took over two hours. I've never been a fan of smelling burnt flesh, especially my own; icky! In the end, a healthy baby was born, a lot of blood was lost (I'm on iron pills) and I was told I can't have any more children. But we were done having kids anyway so this news is not heartbreaking. We feel extremely blessed with our two boys and couldn't ask for anything more.
One freaky thing that happened to me was my vision became distorted a few days before I had Cade. It's a condition called Central Serous Chorioretinopathy. In layman's terms, I have fluid in my right retina but the doctor anticipates it going away on its own. If it doesn't remedy itself by six weeks, there is a procedure I can do but it's not ideal. In the meantime, everything looks distorted so if you see me walking by and I don't recognize you initially, be kind. You're fuzzy looking. :-)
Brock has been adjusting to his new brother. At first, he was skeptical but every day he warms up a little more. He likes to "show off" his baby brother to people. It's very endearing. Who knows how long it will last but we live moment to moment in our household of boys. Life is good.
Tomorrow morning we head over to the hospital for our planned c-section and while in there, repair my tethered uterus. Both surgeries combined are anticipated to take about two hours. When Brock was born, they whisked him away to the NICU for three nights and that was emotionally draining. Not to mention physically exhausting for me, as I was in the initial stages of recovery from my emergency c-section. I wasn't able to see him for the first 18 hours of his life. Brutal! We are hopeful that this time the baby will be with us starting immediately and that we don't ever have to visit the NICU again.
So....now we finalize our "to do" list and attempt to get some sleep before our early morning begins. Brock is definitely in the know in terms of mommy having a baby but we have no idea how much this will impact him until he meets his sibling. We've been told the adjustment period takes about three months so mentally, that is what we are preparing for. Wish us luck - he's been pretty feisty this week.
Keep us in your prayers and let's all hope for a healthy, successful delivery, recovery and most of all, baby!
Stay tuned to learn if Baby Mac, Part 2 is a BOY or a GIRL!
11 days until Baby Mac 2 makes his/her appearance!
Be sure to cast your vote (see right side bar) on the baby's gender. Think of it this way, you have a 50% chance of being correct! You don't get those odds in Vegas...
For the longest time I was convinced I was having a girl. So was Brian. But now, we're both not sure. Brock thinks it's a girl but that is because he likes to read a book about a big brother who takes his baby sister to the park.
Do you remember when Brian took the belly vs. basketball shot when I was pregnant with Brock? Here's a reminder. Yep, I'm still bigger than the basketball.
Okay, time to cast your vote. And the winner is...
We have a date for the baby's arrival. Unfortunately, my c-section scar from delivering Brock has attached itself to my uterus and is tethering. I don't really understand what this means, but it hurts. Actually, it feels like the scar is ripping. Um, can we say, "ouch!"?
So, the doctor has decided to plan a c-section so that they can attempt to repair the scar and remove it from the uterus while delivering the baby. They can't guarantee it won't happen again but will make every precaution to attempt success.
What all this really means is that we have a date - August 17th! That is only a few days before Little Mac, the Sequel's actual due date (August 21) so there is a strong chance this baby will arrive before then. Then again, Brock was induced at 42 weeks...
Either way, we know this baby is coming soon. In the meantime, we have enjoyed our last few weeks as a Trio and are planning for our Foursome.
In spite of getting laid off on June 1st, we've been focusing on having a fun and relaxing summer before #2 arrives. Some of the fun things we've been doing are taking Brock to the YMCA twice a week for Little Splashers swim class. He's too young to actually learn how to swim but they teach water safety while introducing basic swim moves. The kids in the class range from about 6 months to 3 years old. Brock loves Judy and Joe, his teachers and he is a star pupil (in this biased mother's opinion). The best part about Little Splashers is that Brian takes him one of the days and I take him the other. He gets undivided Mommy and Daddy time, which is so wonderful for us to have that one-on-one time with our little man.
Kari and Dave tied the knot last week in Lima/Rochester, New York, where Dave is from. His family was so warm and inviting. Only 8 of the "Logan" family members were there to represent our side of the family but we felt like an army of supporters - and know that our California family who couldn't be there was definitely there in spirit. Thanks to Uncles Bobby and John for coming from CT to join us. They were troopers and impressed us all on the dance floor. Brock was the ring bearer and nailed it. He and adorable Georgia Ann stole the show - but we all knew that would happen. Dave looked dashing in his suit and Kari was radiant in her dress. We were so honored to be a part of their special day. I was the Matron on Honor and held back tears watching my baby sister walk down the aisle and marry the man of her dreams. Such a magical experience!
We have two more family weddings coming up this summer/early fall- which is very exciting. And, if timing is on our side, Baby #2 will be attending both weddings! What that really means is that this momma can have a glass of wine at those weddings, woohoo!
And, to complete our summer fun (to date, of course) here are some random pictures of our fast growing little man. Even though he's starting the "terrible two's", we still love him dearly and just breathe through those tantrum moments...
