FUMBLE!

Mike and Joe love to play "FUMBLE"! It's a version of football that has been modified so that it can be played by a three yr old and his dad while inside. It's rough, but they can't get enough of it.

We love our sister!

Where's my sister???

The boys cannot get enough of their sister. Every time I come downstairs, Mike asks me "where's my baby sister." Henry loves to give her kisses, which is the only time he gets to have contact with her. He just wants to tackle her otherwise! We have to baracade her on the couch so he can't reach her. Mike always wants to hold her and tells his dad and brother to be sure they are quiet so they don't wake her up!

Clare Bear!

Here are some new pictures of Clare. She is doing great!

5 Days Old

Clare is doing really well. She is back up to 8lbs now. And for 2 nights in a row, she has slept 4 hours straight. She only gets up to eat for a about 20 minutes and then goes back to sleep for another 2 hours. The boys love her. Mike wants to hold her and Henry wants to maul her. He is so rough he never gets to be near her. I think they are wearing Joe out, although he has been happy to spend so much time with them. This is a first. Abbie and Tricia left today. We were all sad to see them go. They were so much fun to have around. Mike loves "Ms. Tricia." He begged her not to go back to school. But, we are happy that we can look forward to the big Haley visit in a couple of weeks!

The Boys v. Girls

Hank and Mike are reacting very differently to the arrival of Clare. Michael is very interested and wants to hold her. Hank acts likes she isn't even here. When they came to the hospital, Hank was like a tornado. He pulled on all the tubes and lines feeding fluids and medicine to Mel. He somehow disabled her bed so that wouldn't go up and down. He tracked crumbs everywhere. He is a terror. It was really eye openning to see Hank only one year older than little Clare. He made her look so small. Here are some pictures of the boys with Clare and in the hospital room.

Baby Clare

Baby Clare Marie was born on Monday at 0840. She weighed 8 lbs 7 oz and was 21 inches long! That's almost the exact same size as the boys were when they were born. Melissa is doing so much better with the recovery this time compared to last time. She is up walking around, going up and down stairs, and even rocking little Clare to sleep. Michael is very excited to have his new sister at home. Hank doesn't seem too interested. We are all relieved to be home now and we appreciate all the calls and well wishes. Special thanks goes to Abbie "Fat Bear" Haley and her friend Tricia for coming all the way to North Carolina to watch the boys while we were in the hospital. We can't wait for everyone back home to see young Clare. She is the sleepiest baby of all time! -Joe

Children's Museum

Last weekend we took the kids to the Children's Museum in Wilmington. It is not even close to the size or as cool as the one in Indy. However, this did not matter at all. Mike found a train table ( a very worn and used train table) and parked himself there the entire time. He did not even want to go look around and see what else they had to do. He only wanted to play with the trains. So, I guess for our needs, the small and limited Children's Museum was just fine!
The only way we could get him to stop crying hysterically about leaving was to let him push Henry in the stroller. He had a blast, but as you can see, Henry did not appreciate his efforts!
Today ended my first round of pre-op visits before surgery on Monday. Tomorrow starts the second and far less exciting round. I will spend all day at the lab doing work ups. But then Abbie will be coming and then baby girl! And, actually, we do like the name Clare but have not settled on it 100% and haven't come close to a middle name yet. The room is done, although I am still waiting on the bumper that goes with the bedding. I ordered it 6 weeks ago!
Mike and Henry are oblivious to the fact that anything is going on at all. Henry only cares about eating, and since he's started eating table food, he's been eating us out of house and home. For instance, you would think a kid his age would eat a few carrots, some potatoes and maybe just a little something else for dinner. Henry ate a mountain of carrots, two bowls of pasta, two cups of mandarin oranges and an entire container of yogurt. It's like that at every meal. I don't even bother buying the toddler food anymore. I just buy adult size everything and he usually comes close to eating it all in one sitting. He's going to be huge and by my estimates, he is very close to the same weight as Mike. Mike doesn't eat anything and as soon as he figures it out, he'll be passing his food to Henry so he can get up from the table:)
That's all for now. Look back for pictures sometime Monday afternoon/evening!

World's Greatest Dad!

Baby Girl, as we like to call her has a brand new room thanks to her dad. He gave up his "man room" so she could have a nicely decorated space of her own. Well, as if that wasn't enough, he jumped in to help finish the painting that needed to be done. He left for Africa with a cool room filled with Marine stuff and came back to a completely pink room. There was still one wall left, and he took the stencil head on. What a good dad! Brave too. This stencil is no joke. It takes forever! There are still things that need to be delivered in order to finish the whole room. We have a bit more to do, but soon enough it will be done!