Mr. Tim

Katie loves The Little Gym class we signed her up for. She especially likes Mr. Tim, the instructor. I think everything she does in class is to impress Mr. Tim. She talks about him ALOT when we are not at class and she reminds us often that Mr. Tim refers to her "Katie-kins." I'm not sure if Katie even realizes there are other kids in the class because Mr. Tim is the main attraction. In fairness, that is how most of the kids act. Mr. Tim is the modern day Pied Piper. It's funny to watch all the kids come in and greet him. It must be nice to be so adored. I'm beginning to think that this gym class may be one of the best and worst thing we've done. Katie loves it but she likes to practice on our furniture, her bed, outside, in the bathroom and on the hardwood floors. If she could climb up the walls and hang from the curtain rods, I think she would.

Unfortunately, The Little Gym is on vacation this week so there is no class. This is hard to expain to a 2 year old. Sorry Katie, we have to wait until next week to see Mr. Tim again.

He Still Down There?

For those of you who have heard me tell the story of Katie's Christmas morning (or her recap), you may remember her response to me telling her that Santa came and left her some gifts was "He still down there?" Once Katie saw that this tale got a good laugh, she began retelling it with a big exaggerated tone and funny face on the "He still down there!?" part. She is much more fascinated with the idea of Santa and fearful of actually seeing or (God forbid) running into him in the living room. Now we know that same reaction comes with the Easter Bunny. When I told her that the Easter Bunny had visited last Sunday, she instinctively said "He still down there?" I'm hoping that Marin's presence will make Katie less fearful of these guys. Doesn't a buddy make everything easier? And isn't the second child supposed to be the dare-devil, carefree one? There is hope that the fear of holiday visitors will subside over the years. Here are a few pictures from our Easter holiday.

Splish Splash

Marin had her first bath last week. I know how much babies hate being naked and our Marin is no exception. She is a snuggle bug and loves to be warm and cozy. It makes wanting to give her a bath as appealing as banging your head against the wall. Picture a screaming baby accompanied by sympathy moans and cries from a 2.5-year-old sister and a 6-year-old yellow lab. Fortunately, we were given a reassuring tip while at the hospital. The nurse said that when they have a fussy baby in the nursery that they wash their face and head and it calms them down. Since they said sponge baths are fine for now, we washed Marin in the sink while Katie took her shower. She doesn't really shower. She takes a bath and we run the water while she gets in. I guess shower has more cache than bath in Katie's world. I wouldn't say that Marin was too upset when we got her undressed but, I have to admit, the face and head washing really did soothe her. She was calm yet very alert while we sat in the bathroom and finished up Katie's shower.

Our New Family

We arrived home on Sunday after four days at the hospital. I could have burst I was so happy to bring my little girl home to my big girl. Our new family is finally under one roof! Here are some highlights of Marin's birth. We were late for her delivery. I screwed up the time of my surgery! Since September I've been telling everyone that at 9:40 on March 24th Deuce Perusse would arrive. People who know me might be surprised by this. I'm rarely late and detail oriented. Ultimately, I did find one notation in pencil on some paperwork sent to me in September. When we arrived at 8:15 as directed by the 3 people I met during my pre-op appointment - hello? not one of them caught it even though I said 9:40 a bunch of times- a flock of nurses greeted me asking if I was stuck in traffic. Ah what? My smiley response of "No I was told to be here at 8:15, an hour and 15 minutes before my surgery." The very kind nurse said "You're scheduled for 8:40." Needless to say they were anxious to get me on schedule and not screw up the whole day of scheduled surgeries. The delivery itself seemed quick. I was walking into the operating room a short half hour after I arrived. I jumped up on the operating table (literally), had a quick spinal and they got to work. Dr. Metcalf, my doctor, was there along with Dr. Aron who assisted her. Dr. M told me she had to reassure Dr. A that I was normal because of the whole who-is-late-to-deliver-their-baby situation. The difference between my first section and this one was that I was well rested and showered. Also, everyone was very chatty talking about vacations, current events, etc. It put me at ease since being awake while they open you up is a little creepy . Add that to the fact that this was one of the biggest days of my life, I appreciated the distraction. Marin Jane Perusse arrived soon after they started! The celebration could begin! Since she wasn't expecting us that day and was happily resting in my womb, she was a little surprised and had to be stimulated. I think this was the first clue about her personality. She likes to sleep and relax. We have to wake her up to eat...often.

The rest of the day was spent in recovery and in our room. Our first visitor was Marin's big sister Katie, who was joined by Grammie and Auntie Sheila. Katie was all smiles looking at her new sister. Chad and I couldn't have been prouder. Katie has always been a well adjusted kid and she seemed virtually unphased by the whole experience of meeting her new sister and being away from us for 4 days (thankfully).

The low point occurred the next morning. After having a difficult time with nursing when I had Katie, I decided to give it another shot with Marin. I was hoping that the outcome would be different. After nursing for 24 hours and having the doctor already write a prescription, I made the difficult decision to stop nursing. Marin was a text-book nurser and thing were going so well. I had to finally admit that my body was not made for nursing. I figured that I might as well move forward with bottle feeding. Marin lost about a pound in the hospital most of that weight in the first 24 hours and left at 6lbs 2oz. She is beginning to rebound but is still our little peanut.

I spent the next few nights recovering and enjoying visits with family that came to the hospital to see the newest addition. My recovery seems to be accelerated by the fact that Marin could spend the night in the nursery with her buddies...at least that is what I would tell myself as I cried when I sent her down there each night in order to get some sleep.

We came home on Sunday morning and were happily greeted by Katie. She seemed really excited to see us and we were thrilled to see her. We spend our first day home relaxing and gearing up for the lack of sleep we knew was before us. Chad and I are a little more equipped this time around. We didn't know what we were doing the first time (sorry Katie!) but with Marin we each took a shift during the night and survived our first night at home. Marin is eating every two hours and then will easily go back to snoozing. I'm not sure if this will last but we'll definitely take advantage of having a sleepy baby.

Katie is adjusting well. We are trying to keep her in her routine. She isn't waking up when the baby cries at night. I don't know how that is possible. Marin can get fired up when she wants to eat. She also is not to pleased when she has her diaper changed. If Katie is waking up, she hasn't made it known to us. I wouldn't be surprised if she was up there "reading" since she loves to read her books in bed (light or no light).

So far, we have a happy and content baby. We've had a big week and can happily report that we are all doing well!

It's a girl!

It's a girl! Marin Jane Perusse arrived on March 24th at 9:30am. She weighed 7lb 2oz. and is 19.5 inches long. We are happy she is here and is healthy.

It's a Big Week

It's a big week for the Perusses! Our newest addition will arrive and we'll officially go from a family of three to a family of four. I'm know I'm ready. My body, especially my back, keeps reminding me that I'm very pregnant. Everyone is busy getting ready. Chad and Katie gave Abby a bath on Friday. Fortunately, the weather was unseasonably warm so they could do it on the deck. Abby is going on vacation to my sister-and brother-in-laws' house while we are in the hospital this week. We are referring to it as her "spring break." Chad and I spent Saturday cleaning the house from top to bottom. This is one of the benefits of having a scheduled c-section. You get to plan a little more than usual. We were able to bring some of the baby items down from the attic and gear-up for Deuce Perusse. Here is Katie testing out the pack-n-play with her baby doll, Owen. She keeps telling us all of the things she is going to teach her baby brother or sister, like how to eat pizza and how to play with her train. Since I was able to stop working on Friday and be pretty sure that the baby would be arriving by March 24th, I arranged for me and Katie to take a gym class before I went to the hospital. If she likes it, we hope to sign her up for more. Last year, we spent the spring in swim class and watching her do her jumping jacks, forward rolls and yoga made us think that we should get her involved in another class. Chad is fortunate enough to be able to have a paternity leave. He'll be home for two weeks once the baby arrives. This is great because his office recently moved to Boston so his commute has become a little longer and a little more complicated. We are going to continue to send Katie to daycare. She enjoys seeing her friends and they have a bunch of fun, creative things that they do there. I'm sure she would be bored home with me and a newborn. Below are a few of the recent items Katie created at daycare. One is a volcano from learning about dinosaurs and the other is a hat that they wore when they went on a Safari. She also created a homemade back-pack, camera and passport for the " 'fari." So that is what going on today but this week we will have some big changes. Stay tuned for my next post. I think it'll be a good one!

Katie-isms

I've had a few moments lately where I was talking to Katie and had to write down what she said.

She picked up my new iPhone and said "Ohhh Mom! Nice Blackberry!"

"Abby! You are a naughty dog!" since Abby has been sneaking onto our couch at night despite the many efforts we've taken to get her to stop.

"Baby Owen loves Doc! Can we watch Cars!?" Baby Owen is her doll, formally known as Baby Jessica. It's a little confusing because 90% of the time Baby Owen is dressed in pink. Also, Owen is the name of the baby at daycare. Cars is her FAVORITE movie right now so Baby Owen always wants to watch Cars...go figure.

"I want to party in the U.S.A." Katie doesn't spend much time in the car but has taken a liking to the Miley Cyrus' song "Party in the U.S.A" After I told my sister Mary, Mary made sure Katie knew the whole chorus. It's hard to explain to a 2-year old why I can't find Party in the U.S.A on demand via the radio.

"Probably..." is the start of many comments.

-Probably the sun is tired.

-Probably the kids are in having dinner

-Probably we can watch Cars after nap.

"This is crazy weather!" I would agree based on the last couple weeks.

"That's a tough one."

Katie: "I think I fell in love."

Me: "What do you mean?"

Katie: "I think I fell in love..with the White House. Can we go visit?"

"That bridge needs a Band Aid." This was her response when she was directing me as to which road we should take home but I told her we couldn't go down that road because the bridge was broken and being fixed.