Nathan is one month old and cuter and chubbier than ever! I’m still surprised how big he really is. He’s already outgrowing his 0-3 month outfits and moving up to 3-6 month clothes. He has more “sweet” rolls on his arms and legs and is sporting a nice double chin. Just like his brother, he lost all the hair on top of his head around 3 weeks making him resemble a little old man. despite all these curious changes, he’s still a handsome little boy.

Nathan’s temperament is still mellow and laid back. He’s becoming very predictable with his preferences: When he wakes up, he’s in a very pleasant mood for about an hour where he starts to get fidgety and fuss until he drifts off to sleep. He sleeps very well through the day; still averaging around 18-20 hours a day. Night is wonderful. I can put him down at 7pm and he usually wakes around 6am. He loves lying on his play mat, watching his brother play, going outside for some fresh air, car rides, and being wrapped. He’s discovering he has feet and likes to put weight on them for short periods of time. He learned how to smile at 4 weeks and let out his first giggle a few days after that. During his quiet alert time, he coos and sticks out his tongue.

I am still adjusting to having two children, and some days are definitely better than others. But I am sensing our lives are slowly settling into a routine we all enjoy. Caleb has adapted wonderfully to the less direct attention and has learned to play by himself and now regularly engages in imaginative play. He has gained more independence and can wash his hands, put on his shoes, and eat his meals without assistance. These little skills help me tremendously. During Nathan’s many naps, we find special activities to do together. currently, we love playing with legos., playing golf, baseball and soccer, reading books, cooking and going outside. When Caleb naps, Nathan and I nap together or I snag a few minutes to myself  with a book and a handful of M&Ms. It’s amazing the times I spend with just one child feel like a vacation now.

Here are a few pictures from the past few days of the littlest man and his family:

I’m a little late in writing this but I have to say, there is a lot of adjustment when a family grows from three to four. I am trying my hardest to fit into the role of supermom of two but the learning curve is steep. Thank the Lord Nathan is a well-behaved and sleepy baby.

His two week check-up went splendidly. His is 9 pounds 11 ounces putting him into the 77th percentile for weight and he is half an inch longer at 21 1/2 inches putting his height at the 79th percentile. He’s well on his way to a career on the Cardinals’ defensive line.

He is such a wonderful baby. He always looks like he’s got a little grin on his face. He seems to sleep about 23 hours a day only to wake up to eat and take a look around before nodding off again. This doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his witching hours though. If he decides to get fussy, he’ll wait until his daddy comes home to show off his personality. But this only happens occasionally. When he is awake, he loves watching his big brother play and talk to him. As soon as he hears Caleb, he’ll look around for him. This makes my heart instantly melt. I love watching my boys interact with each other. Here are a few pictures of the bothers from the day Nathan turned 2 weeks old:

My dear friend Amber came over the other day so we could take Nathan’s newborn pictures. He was quite the trooper for 3 1/2 hours of photo taking with only one projectile poop incident. I really wanted to capture every detail of his babyhood from how curly and snuggly he is to the wrinkles in his lips. Even though memory is a powerful tool, having photographs to help me remember this fleeting moment in our lives.

At 9:18 pm on August 10th, 2011, Nathan Andrew was born! He weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces and was 21 inches long.

We were scheduled to be induced at 6 am on August 10th. I woke up at 4 am ready to go and called the hospital around 5 to check the availability for beds in the labor and delivery ward. Apparently, every full term fetus had decided to make their appearance that day so the nurse said there was nothing available and all I could do would be to call back in about 4 hours. Slightly deflated, I wobbled my way back to bed. At least now we could have a normal morning and not be rushed to go in. Around 9, I called again only to be turned away with the same instructions. A little more deflated, we packed up and went to Target to burn some time and anxiety. I knew by lunch that chances were slim they would take us in at all that day so I waited a bit longer to call and took a nap instead. I woke up around 1:30 and called the hospital knowing full well, they hardly take inductions past that point. To my surprise, the nurse asked if we could come in right away. Since we had our bags literally packed for weeks, we were more than ready. So we dropped Caleb off at his uncle and aunt’s place and hurried over to the hospital. This was it! We were prepared for a long night of labor. At least the Diamondbacks were playing that evening.

It took a while to get settled in our room (the hospital was packed). They finally got us hooked up to the IV and pitocin around 4:30. I was dilated to 4 cm and 50% effaced. At first, I had only minor cramping and discomfort but about a half hour later, my doctor came in and broke my water. At that point I was already dilated to 5 cm. My doctor predicted labor would only be about 4-5 more hours. Since my body has been telling me it’s been ready to go with bouts of false labor and steady dilation each week, I knew that breaking my water would probably get things going naturally. The added pitocin really only made things go faster. About five minutes after my water broke, the contractions quickly became very intense. I couldn’t believe how quickly everything was moving. about 15 minutes went by and the pain was terrible. Not wanting to miss my chance for an epidural, I gave the go-ahead for the order. 10 more minutes of crazy painful contractions and the anesthesiologist made it to our room and hooked me up to the epidural. At first, I could only feel it working in my right side and began to panic a bit. They had me move around and the anesthesiologist adjusted the catheter in my back and after a while the problem cleared up. Trauma averted. At this point, 7pm, I was feeling great and the nurse checked me again. I was 8cm and totally effaced. Just an hour or two longer and we would be pushing! We watched a few innings of baseball and I started to feel some pressure. Turns out baby was making his way down and I was almost set. Once the doctor came in, and everything was set up for delivery, it was time to push! Time in labor: less than 5 hours! After about 25 minutes, Nathan was born! He took his first breath, cried a bit, and took a look around. Then they nurse took him to get cleaned off and checked up. We could tell right away he was a very big baby but I was surprised to hear 8 pounds 13 ounces! He looks just like his brother did except for the lighter hair and extra pound of chunk. Here are a few pictures from our delivery:

A few weeks have passed since my last update but everything has been relatively uneventful. First, I’ll update on our firstborn. Caleb is getting more and more grown up by the day. He is definitely easier to understand and has a huge vocabulary. I can’t keep him away from anything cooking-related - his kitchen, my kitchen, cooking shows, the appliance section at target…. I bought him an activity book the other day to help him develop his drawing skills and he’s taken off. He can draw smiley faces:

and flowers along with basic shapes and his favorite scribbles. Andy has already gotten him started on sports cards I think mostly so Andy can rekindle some old childhood memories:

He also learned how to ride and steer his tricycle and loves cruising up and down the hallway:

We’re working on decorating his new big boy room (Airplane themed complete with a big boy bed) before his little brother comes. Of course, me being the decorating fanatic that I am, he can’t sleep in there until we’ve painted it, hung up curtains, hung all the decorations moved in furniture, and His Aunt Brandi has painted airplanes on the wall. He’s already thrilled about the idea of a new room and has already deeded his old room over to his baby brother.

Now on to our new addition. We had the opportunity to sneak a peek at little Nathan at our 18 week ultrasound. He, however, was not being very cooperative. He was facing my spine the entire time and would squirm out of the way each time the tech needed to take measurements. Thanks to modern techology, we still were able to capture some pictures of him:

Here’s an image of his spine and torso.

It’s confirmed, He’s a boy!

His leg and two sets of toes.

His face.

Profile

3D of his face. Kind of sketchy based on his awkward position.

And here is a video of the the ultrasound. complete with captions so you can tell what you’re looking at.

We had our first OB appointment and sonogram yesterday. Even after going through this process before, seeing the tiny flutter of a heartbeat was nothing short of a miracle. Baby is measuring right on track and is due August 12th. I’m actually going back at the end of January for another ultrasound at 12 weeks. We never had this one with Caleb so I’m really excited to see what that stage of development looks like. When we came home, we showed the picture to Caleb and tried to explain that those wavy gray lines were his little sibling. Of course he had no clue and was only concerned with holding the picture himself.

We are really impartial toward either gender. I’m a little more on the side of a boy just because I would love for Caleb to have a brother/best friend to grow up with. But recently, I’ve been beginning to wonder if we’re having a girl based on a few clues:

Clue #1. Before we were even pregnant with Caleb, we had a boy name picked out. Girl names were all but impossible to choose from and up until that ultrasound, we still had not decided on one. This time, we have already decided on a girl name but can’t agree on a boy’s name at all.

Clue #2. Today I asked Caleb if the baby in Mommy’s belly was a little sister or little brother. He repeatedly told me it was a little sister AND said it was a girl.

Clue #3. I’ll just claim this one as a maternal gut instinct. Some part of me thinks it’s a girl, but I’m also a little back and forth on it. Probably because I’m more partial to boys and am a little intimidated at the thought of having to raise a girl in this society.

Only time will tell. I’m assuming we’ll have that all-revealing ultrasound sometime in March. Here is the sonogram picture from yesterday. Baby is in the middle of the black circle. Head is on the lower right and the heart is the bottom middle bulge:

Love,

Andrew, Bri, Caleb and Baby #2

I feel really bad for letting this blog go a bit. Between my brother and family moving here and the holidays fast approaching, I’ve been very busy. But that’s not a good enough excuse. So I’ll try to catch everyone up.

My brother and his family moved all the way out here from Louisiana to hang out with us in the desert. To say it’s been awesome to have them here is an understatement. We all get along so well together. Josh and Andy can chat all day about sports and games. Brandi and I are both artistic, love photography and are mothers to small children so we have a ton in common. Caleb absolutely loves his big cousin Krynn and follows here around wherever she goes. He also loves to take care of his baby cousin Cassie. Here’s a video of him feeding her:

This Holloween was the first we actually took Caleb Trick-or-treating. He actually loved it and was a pro by the end of the night. We dressed him up as a dinosaur and went out with Josh, Brandi and the kids as well as Emily and Ryan, Amanda and Kaiden. The big group made the night great.

As you can see from the first video, my mom paid a visit to her children and grand babies. Since Josh and fam were down here as well, it was like two vacations in one for her. We actually even got my oldest brother to fly down here for a few days for a Liebmann family reunion/Thanksgiving extravaganza. It was wonderful to hang out with everyone again and have Caleb meet his Uncle Jesse.

We spent our Holloway thanksgiving up in beautiful (and seasonably cool) Prescott with various cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Our hosts live on a farm surrounded by golden fields. The kids had a blast chasing the chickens and jumping on the trampoline. Here are a few shots from the day:

Due to the holiday season, my photography has been super busy. I always love meeting new families and capturing that moment in their lives. You can check out some of the sessions on my photography blog. The link is in the lower right hand corner of this page.

I’m writing this entry on the eve of Caleb’s second birthday. I can’t believe my little baby is already two years old, running (and jumping) around, talking up a storm (even if we really can’t understand every word), making friends, and maturing into a sweet-spirited little boy. I am so proud of the person he is becoming. Even though I’m catching glimpses of the impending terrible two’s, the good definitely outweighs the bad. He is so so so sweet to his family and others, he hardly ever fights back and would rather have other children play with his things, than cause an argument. He laughs often and hardily, thoroughly enjoying playtime. He can count up to 12 by memory and knows his numbers up to 20. He knows all of his letters, several shapes, and all of the basic colors. Independence is something he’s beginning to feel more comfortable with and will often run off to play with his friends rather than stand by my side. He loves to cuddle, especially if we’re watching his favorite show, “Good Eats” on Food Network. Speaking of cooking, he has this new habit of sneaking off with my cooking utensils, pots and pans to use them in his play kitchen. Tonight, I actually let him stand on his little step stool beside me to “help” me cook. He was so diligent and stayed in the kitchen the entire time, throwing things away, and collecting requested ingredients. He loves to do things on his own, especially during his daily routines. For example, before bedtime he turns off all the lights in his room, turns on his sound machine, lullabies, and nightlight and climbs into his own crib, with a little help. He’s a great sleeper and will sleep 12+ hours at night and then quietly play in the morning until we wake up. He has also given me the new nickname of “Apple Mommy” and thinks it’s hilarious whenever he says it. His stats are weight: 25.4 lbs (19%), and height: 33.75″ (33%)

And now for the most exciting development in the Holloway family: Caleb is going to be a big brother! I am about five weeks pregnant and due mid-August. We found this out about a week before Caleb’s birthday party so we decided to reveal it to everyone then. It was so hard keeping this news a secret for an entire week but the pay off was definitely worth it. And for you lovely Holloblog readers, here’s a video of the big reveal:

We are so excited for this new little arrival as well as is Caleb. I know he’ll make a wonderful and nurturing big brother and our family will become more rich and full of fun. And now that I actually have a good reason to blog, I may just return to the trusty old Holloblog and update a little more often

It’s a problem in many homes - parents buy roomfuls of toys only to have their kids play with household items that were never intended to be toys. Caleb loves stealing my kitchen tools and hoarding them in his own play kitchen. He also loves taking the cereal boxes out from the cabinet and pouring the contents into his own bowls, then proceeding to throw the boxes into the recycle bin (at least he’s being green…) In this video you can see his new toy invention.

It’s been a little quiet on the blog front but believe me, It has been crazy here. First, and probably the best news: my brother Josh and his family moved here from Louisiana!

The series of events that fell into place to get them here is nothing short of incredible. They already had their house up for sale, and were questioning whether they wanted to stay in LA or move to another place entirely. They talked to us a little and decided they really wanted to move here in order to be close to family. But that couldn’t happen unless my brother could get a job out here. He looked online and found one job opening for his company in the entire state. And the city for this one job position? The same one where we live. Now the next obstacle was to get accepted for this position. This had to be done within a short time frame because their house in Louisiana was closing in a few days. Josh got on the phone interview with the AZ guys and a few days later got back on with them again to find out he got the job! A few days later, they traversed 1,300 miles across the southern US and arrived on our doorstep. Finding a house was the easy part, and three days later, they found a beautiful new house. Things couldn’t have worked out more perfectly. Now Caleb has two cousins to hang out with. He loves following his older cousin Krynn around and playing with her. The second she walks in the door, the two of them go off into the family room and we never see them again. They love playing together. All of us get along so well and have so much in common. I’m so thankful to have some of my own family here (even though my in-law family is awesome enough).

The two cuties, Krynn and Cassie, reading in our family room.

Second: Andy no longer needs glasses! He had LASIK done this morning. It was such an intense experience. I know because I got to watch! Yes, I’m one of those wierdos who love watching surgery programs on The Discovery Channel. When the assistant asked me if I wanted to come back and view the surgery got giddy I was so excited. From where I was sitting, this is what I could see:

Andy is in there somewhere behind the two doctors. That big silver TV screen is where my husband’s eye was displayed, magnified 100 times it’s original size and being poked and prodded will all sorts of scary surgical tools. I could actually see his cornea being lifted off his eye and folded back. It was awesome! 10 minutes after entering that room, he walked out with perfect vision. He’s going to have to take it easy for a few days and let his eyes heal, but he will (hopefully) never have to wear glasses again. It’s a good thing I’m okay with wearing my contacts because I could never go through that procedure without having some sort of embarrassing nervous breakdown halfway through. I’m so proud that he did it and am excited to see him wake up tomorrow and see perfectly without any aid.

Anyways, those are some of the most recent happenings going on in our house. Caleb is doing great; he actually cut his first two year old molar this past week (unbeknownst to myself…). He has a new fascination with letters and will actively search for them and sound them out (not always correctly). His favorite letter is “O”. Point to any letter, and he’ll most likely label it as an “ooooowwwweeee” He’s got a good start though, and he can say E, A, T, D, C, and N among others, even if he’s not always correct. I can no longer just read him a story, I have to trail my finger across the word and spell it out followed by a correct pronunciation of the word. If I fail to do this, he will grab my finger and make it drag across the word until I correct my wrongdoing. I often catch him reading whatever material he can get ahold of and start spelling out the words himself: “aye, eee, ah, ooo, oh, eye, oooh….” Yes, they’re mostly vowels; that’s his thing.

And because I can’t leave this post without a pic of the little man, here’s one from a few weeks back when our lawn turned into a prairie:

Being a photographer’s child can result in two ways. 1) they hate the camera and run away screaming every time it appears, or 2) they are fascinated by it and want to take their own pictures. Fortunately, Caleb turns out to be the latter. He loves taking the lens cap off my “work camera” but that’s as far as my trust goes. I passed down to him my old point and shoot, but he quickly jammed the lens. Now he has his eyes on my new little camera and loves sneaking into my purse to find it. I let him have a little supervised play time with it at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Everyone in the room was astounded by how much he knew about cameras until I let him have full reign with it. I think I might have a future assistant in a few years. For the record, I never tell people to “say cheese” so I have no idea where he got that from.

And here are some examples of his fine artistry:

This was when he started taking pictures of himself. Narcissism at its finest….

We’re at the wonderful stage where Caleb discovers a new word everyday. He still talks in his own language most of the time, but his english is getting a little more coherent.

He’s also at the stage where Daddy is his superhero. This child hangs on every word, expression, and movement that comes from his father. He imitates everything he does, and if Andy makes any sign that he’s displeased, Caleb bursts into tears. As soon as Daddy steps in the door, Caleb is off showing him what he did that day. Recently he’s been very good at going “poo poo in the potty”. More times than not he’s gone. At first I’ve had to catch him mid-push and rush him to the bathroom, but now he’s coming to tell me he needs to go. His reward? A call to Daddy to exclaim his great accomplishment. This child LOVES his daddy. So this video seems fitting to show just how much they both adore eachother.

Caleb also got a Guitar of his own the other day. He loves strumming away at it. Since I don’t show many pictures on here (I just horde them all on Facebook) Here are a few of him and his new “gah-gah”:

Here’s a little video of us drilling Caleb on some words.

Here’s the Holloway Band rehearsing for their next gig: