One month, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy 1 month birthday little guy.  My how time has flown!

Grant has loved being a big brother!

The last month (much like the year) has flown by.  We've mostly been busy with Christmas related things, but we managed to squeeze in a few other fun events.  Before we get into that, I wanted to clarify our Christmas card/birth announcement.  We took several hundred pictures (literally hundreds) and finally got one we loved.  (Keeping a 2 1/2 year old still for long enough, with a good - not cheesy - smile in a pose we wanted was a lot to ask, we know.  Let's just say there were some M&M bribes that day...)  However, it had to be cropped to fit on the card and therefore part of Grant and Reid's body had to be taken out of the picture.  No big deal, except it made Grant's shirt look like it only said "Dad says I'm Naughty".  It left off the "& Nice" part at the bottom of his shirt.  (We promise!)  We didn't think it was worth taking another picture OR cutting off Grant's head, but I did get a few comments about it.

One of the runner-ups of the photo shoot

In mid December Grant was lucky enough to have his friend Alex (along with Erin and Todd) come over so that everyone could meet Reid.  They brought a yummy breakfast and the boys played until they were delirious.

Erin reading to the boys

Todd practicing his newborn hold

Of course, the big event of the month was Christmas.  I had to work on Christmas weekend this year however, so we had to be creative with how we handled it.  It ended up working out best to have our Christmas on the Tuesday after.  We decided that we would much rather have Grant have the full "wake up in the morning and see what Santa brought" experience.  And we didn't think it would be fair to have to wait until the afternoon to open presents.  This was a good idea since it took over 3 and a half hours to open presents!  Everything he opened (including Reid's gifts), he wanted to play with for at least 30 minutes.  This is probably the only year we will be able to actually move Christmas because I think Grant was getting a little suspicious after the Christmas Eve service when people were telling him to go to bed early so that Santa would come.

The only picture we got of Reid in his Christmas pajamas before they got dirty.

Making sure to get every last thing out.

"Did I have that in my stocking?"

Grant was a much better unwrapper this year - definitely tore into it.

His phrase of the day, "what could it be, what could it be?"

Pretty good reaction

And for the rest of our Christmas day, we played with his new Thomas train set (this was a practice run at putting together the tracks)

Since the Goddard School was closed this week, Grant has been home with Shannon and Reid.  For the most part its been lots of indoor activities at our house, but one fun outing they had was to go to the Butterfly Pavilion with the Todds.

Henry, Grant, Avery, and Reid taking a break

Grant and Avery holding hands

We were truly blessed in 2011 and we feel that 2012 could be even better.  So we'll end 2011 with an Irish toast:

May your mornings bring joy
and your evenings bring peace...
May your troubles grow less
as your blessings increase!

First 2 weeks as a family of 4!

You got the important info in the last post, so here is the pictorial timeline including some of the details of our last two weeks.

Monday the 21st

We arrived at the hospital at 6:45 am, about 3 hours after we finalized the name. (no joke)

I waited outside the OR for what seemed like forever! It was so long that I thought they forgot to bring me in and after I heard a baby cry I thought for sure that I had missed Reid's birth... (imagine my panic!) but thankfully a minute later the doctor came by and said they were just about ready to start.

 Tuesday

Everyone was sleepy after staying up to watch the KU-Georgetown game in Maui that started at 10pm. Why did it have to start so late?  And why did I feel the need to stay up and watch it after being up for almost 20 hours?!

First picture (that was taken outside the OR) of the 3 of us. 

Visitors!  Melissa, Mich and Cathlin stopped by to meet Reid.

Wednesday

A couple more visitors - Erica, Janell and Casey

He's so tiny!

And he's a good snuggler

Reid's going home outfit.  We thought we wouldn't be able to leave until Thanksgiving, but they let us go a day early!

Meanwhile back at home, Grant was helping Gigi get some of the food ready for the next day's feast.

And Gigi and Papa helped Grant stay out of trouble.  Here he's making a turkey centerpiece.

Thanksgiving!

Shannon's boys are all smiles before we stuff ourselves.

Grant, Gigi, and Papa snuck in some park time and enjoyed the weather on this fantastic Colorado day.

But there was plenty of snuggle time inside also

When asked what he was thankful for, and without any prompting, Grant said, "my baby brother Reid."  We were going to go around the table, but no one could top that.

Sometime between Friday and Tuesday (it's kind of a blur)

Papa started on his list, which inluded helping me put up the Christmas lights

We got to visit a firehouse with Erica's dad, Bill, because he is the fire commissioner in Long Island.  So cool!

The guys were so nice even though we came during a Bronco's game.  By the way... that hose is heavier than it looks.

Grant helped us put the decorations on the Christmas tree.  Of course we then had to help rearrange a bit as all the ornaments were on the bottom 1/3 of the tree...

He even wanted to put the star on top

Yesterday we had Reid's 2 week appointment.  At both the initial visit and yesterday's visit the pediatrician has said how great he is doing, especially with eating.  At his first appointment he was already past birth weight and measured 7 lbs 5 oz.  Now he is up to 8 lbs 3 oz (31st percentile), which is almost Grant's birth weight.  His length is steadily increasing also and now measures at 20 inches (22nd percentile).  His head is not as large as Grant's was however (Grant has a huge head) but it is tracking appropriately at the 22nd percentile. 

Finally, here is a short video of Grant singing to Reid trying to get him to stop crying. 

Announcing the arrival of Reid Austin Scrivner

Born 11/21/11 at 9:11am via repeat c-section.  7 lbs, 2 oz and 19 1/4 in.  For the healthcare folks, his Apgars were 8 & 9.  Initially we saw some red hair (under the bright OR lights), but currently it is darker with a reddish tint to it.  Here are a few pictures.  Hopefully I'll be able to post more pictures and go into a little more detail soon.  But everyone is healthy and happy.

 

Halloween weekend and Baby Eve

It's the day before the arrival of our newest addition, so I thought that I would try to catch up on what has been going on with the three of us over the past month.  Of course the big event at the end of October was Halloween.  This year Grant was very excited to be a dinosaur and he had plenty of opportunities to show his costume off.  There was a Fall Festival at school on Friday, then Sunday we went to a great party at the Todd residence, and of course Monday was actually the trick or treating day.  Here are a couple of pictures, more than a few people mentioned that Grant's costume matched his mom's belly, which Shannon of course "loved"...

At the Goddard Fall Festival with his buddies, Mason (Mickey) and Patrick (a doggie)

Halloween party #2 with Avery (Little Bo Peep)

Little Dinosaur hitting up the first house with mom

Heading home after scoring big on Halloween loot

Going over the big haul of candy (lucky for us he still doesn't understand that you get to EAT the candy)

Sandwiched in between all of the Halloween activities that weekend, we were lucky enough to have the Rogers boys over to watch the KU-Texas football game... and I use the term "game" very loosely.  The Hawks were on the losing end of another blow-out, but Grant and Alex had fun.  Grant has since asked if we could play football, where he basically runs around in a circle and falls down, or he runs with a football straight at me and runs into me.  I think maybe he has been watching KU football too much.

Alex and cheesy Grant

Running back and forth to the fridge was hilarious for them

Also I had some requests to see the final product of Grant's big boy room.  Shannon still has some ideas for decorations on Grant's walls but the layout seems to be set.

Looking in from the doorway at his bed and dresser

Full view of the bed

ABC blanket with his bookshelf in the background

His reading pillow (underneath a Dr Seuss quote) close to his bookshelf

So tomorrow will be the big day.  It's kind of weird this time knowing the actual day that the baby will be born, but so much easier to plan.  Gigi arrived today to watch Grant while we are at the hospital.  I hope that Grant takes good naps, doesn't wake up earlier than 5:30 am, and doesn't have too much atti-two-de (attitude) for her.  He seems to act great around other people and just save his crankiness for mom and dad at home so I think that she will be alright.  Anyway, wish us luck and the next time you check this blog our family will have grown and our world evolved a little more.