A long time ago in a galaxy far far away...

insert Star Wars theme song here. That's the sound that has been blaring in my home for the past month.
Daniel is officially a fan! A die hard fan. This is a dream come true for daddy and possibly my worst nightmare.
They run around the house with their lego ships , pieces flying everywhere, singing the theme song or making up their own tragedies. It's super cute. So far this monthly obsession has turned into a Christmas list that has a theme. All Star Wars. Star Wars pajams, legos, tooth brush, toys, shirts, etc. Thank God the supplies are limitless at the stores. We are trying to tone it down with buying too much but it's hard, well hard for the grandparents.
May the force be with us.
Daniel's yearly obsessions of the past:
Year one: Anything that spins
Year two: School buses
Year three: Cars
Year four: Trains
Year five: Star Wars

He lines them up every night.

Numerous books on Star Wars are everywhere. We have cleaned our the local library and school library.

Thousands of little pieces of legos that daddy spent hours on putting together and continues to fix them nightly as the pieces are left behind in every room.

The droids that go everywhere in his pocket, backpacks or his hands. I have to tear them out of his hands when he falls asleep.

Writing a letter to Santa.

First item on the list, R2D2. 2 more items made the list after this picture...Star Wars of course

I'm waiting when Ry will get sick of this phase, he assures me that he never will. I'm glad because there is a month old baby boy in the other room that looks very interested in all this. At least the investment will go through 2 kids.
This years ornament of choice for Daniel when we visited Hallmark?
Why, Star Wars of course. Ryan has been collecting them since we met and I started him on this craze. I worked at Hallmark for 3 years, something rubbed off on me other than the scented candles that I had to deal with while I worked there.
Some of his ornaments in the past.

So, yes a house full of boys was bound to result in a Star Wars love affair. Perhaps one year we'll dress up for Halloween as a family, but don't ask me to wear "the pricess Leia outfit", that ship has sailed.

1 month

Michael you are ONE month old today!!!
This month has gone by so fast and I can't believe we are a family of four.
Your stats:
At your last weight in by the lactation consultant you were a hefty 8lbs and .01 oz. Exactly an entire pound more than your birth weight.
You are outgrowing your clothes like crazy. Almost most of your 0-3 month clothes are back in the bin in the basement. You are most comfortable in 3-6 month clothes because of your length or new 3 month size. Hand me downs are not your friend. Tall boy.
You are a cuddler, you want to cuddle all the time and feed all the time, which means we spend a lot of time together.
You wake up a couple of times a night, we've had a couple of nights when you went 6 hours, you little tease. You make us work hard at night to keep you calm.
Overall you are a happy little boy.
Your neck muscles surpass your brothers because tummy time is a breeze. You are a strong one and want to look around.
You enjoy your Aunt Kathy talking your ear off. We think it's her dark hair that amazes you or you just love to hear her talk. I enjoy it because I get stuff done.
You still don't know what to think of your loud brother but soon you'll know how much he just adores you.
You are so loved by everyone and we are so thrilled we get to call you our own.

The traditional monkey comes out. Michael at one month old.

Snoozing during the day and playin' at night.

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Sunday miracle

This Sunday we made it to church.
I got dressed and put makeup on.
The baby was dressed cute.
Daniel looked spiffy as did Ryan.
Everyone behaved in church.
Two little older ladies that sat behind us made comments such as:
"God bless you", "What angels", "Now, that's a man's name (referring to Michael's name)", "What a nice looking family", "What well behaved children".
The priest even came up to us because guess what? we got their with time to spare!
If only they saw us on any other Sunday. It probably helped that we went to a later mass than normal and there weren't a hundred kids competing with noise levels. Oh it was just perfect, we were just a family in church that looked so put together and I was taking all the credit.
until...
we got home and I saw that Daniel had his shoes on the wrong feet. At least they matched.

Today I have proclaimed a day of getting back into the swing of things for ME:
I'm planning a walk by myself.
I have my pedicure stuff out.
I have my bleach trays and floss for my teeth all ready to go.
I have pumped milk in the fridge for daddy to take care of things.
Now, I have a screaming baby telling me it's milk time. Small steps.

Thankful

For being a special person to my little guy

 For my two loves

 Our new family of 4

 A healthy baby boy

 A great husband

 Family and cousins for my littles

 A wonderful family to care for my bunnies. In laws came over and took pics with their own camera but we are extremely thankful for both sets of grandparents. They are an amazing group of folks and support system.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

A special person

Daniel had a "Special Person's Day" today at school. I volunteered to be his special person.
The kids did a great job singing.
I got to enjoy some dessert he made as well.

2 peas

"I love my brother"

 They are best friends already.

 Daniel hasn't shown any jealousy. He just loves on his baby brother all day.

 He says "hey baby Michael, you're a cutie pie" in a baby voice. When I dropped him off at school he said "I'm going to miss my baby brother so much".

 They cuddle.

 They hug.

 They chat.

 They share bath time together. 

 Michael's firth bath.

 Michael's first bath.

 Daniel's first bath. Can you see the resemblance?

 Daniel's first monkey friend.

 Michael's monkey friend returns.
I see a future of playing cars, going out and scheming against their parents...just what I dreamed of.

On the day you were born

It was Friday, October 26th and I was determined to wash my floors. My mom has been helping me keep the house clean for a couple of months now but with her being gone to Poland I couldn't stand my floors not being washed another day. I told myself not to overdo it. By the time I was done I felt good and exhausted.
I was having major heart burn the entire day so as the night came, it got even worse. I was up at 11pm flipping through channels, I think I passed out at 11:30. I told Ryan that he could sleep in the next morning so he was down stairs watching a movie. He came up around midnight, put his sleep apnea mask on and passed out quickly.
Between my heart burn and having to go pee every 20 minutes at about 12:30am I was in the bathroom AGAIN. Just like with Daniel my water broke sitting on the can. I felt it trickle and told myself it wasn't it. Maybe by our 4th kid I won't pray "please don't let this be it" and just go with the flow. 4th kid, yeah right!
I opened the door and told Ryan my water broke. With his mask on and God knows what blowing into his mouth from the machine he couldn't hear me. I had to yell again, he was all tangled in the tubes from the machine. He got up and after that you just had to see the commotion. With a towel between my legs I started running around gathering stuff to add to my 95% packed bag. Of course my makeup bag was first. I remember thinking if my water broke this time around I would be calm, take a shower, put makeup on, YEAH RIGHT!!! My boys like to get the show on the road quick.
I called my sister to come over and watch Daniel, who was asleep and didn't suffer any trauma in seeing us be complete idiots. The best was when we couldn't find my keys, eventually after what seemed like forever searching for them I grabbed the spare keys.
It took Ryan a couple of tries to back out of the garage because of his sleepiness and nerves. I couldn't let Ryan take the expressway because visions of idiots on the road going 80 miles an hour flashed in front of my eyes. We took streets all the way down, we parked in the handicap parking and went through the same door as we did 4.5 years ago. With a towel between my legs we think the security guard was the same too because we remembered his calm, dumb demeanor from last time too.
Once I was prepped and it was verified that yes my water broke and yes baby boy #2 was in breach position like his older brother, we were being wheeled to the OR.
My handsome husband in his scrubs stayed calm and cool. I knew he was tired as it was already 2:30am and he literally slept 30 minutes. I saw him with a cup of coffee, downing it like his life depended on it.
My awesome Dr, who happens to be flamboyantly gay, busted into the room talking about how dare I wake him up. "My kids like to make an entrance late at night" I said. 'KIDS', the word made me realize I was about to become a mommy of 2.
I knew what to expect when I was in the OR but I was still nervous of the unknown. It seemed like forever before they let Ryan back in.  

My in-laws arrived right before Ry was about to go in. They always have their camera and took these awesome pics.

 After some tugging and pulling our bundle of joy came out screaming on 10/27/12 @ 3:34am. With an Apgar score of 9, 9, 9, 10 we knew we had a competitor on our hands beating his brother by 1 on one of his scores. This time around we were allowed to take pics in the actual delivery room.

Once the baby was out and I was out of the recovery my poor hubby had it for the day.

 The next morning a special someone got to meet Michael. We have a video of Daniel walking in to meet him and it's adorable but I cannot download it because our new laptop doesn't have the software, but trust me it's adorable. Just look at these two.

What hair color do my boys have? That is a million dollar question. In certain lights they both have reddish/blond hair, then in some Daniel is a total blondie. Time will tell. The debate continues which side of the family the hair came from. All I know is when they get mad I call them both "Angry Irish men".

Our first family photo, me with some extra pounds to shed and major water retention.

 Before I knew it, it was time to go home.

 and deal with reality.

I think we are doing pretty well. Above is Michael in the swing and below is Daniel in it 4.5 years ago.

We are surviving with a good sense of humor, tons of diapers and wipes. We cherish every moment because we know how quickly time flies before they are not babies anymore.
I'm looking forward to this holiday season with my 3 men.