2 weeks old

Going for a bike ride! I miss our long walks. We used to put Addison in the stroller and we could go for a long walk. Now that she has to ride her bike or scooter, our walks are much much shorter. We can get in a little bit longer of a walk if we go to the park. Parks finally opened beginning of June but it was towards the end of June before we went! 

She LOVES to eat outside. And she especially loves when Mason sits next to her. 

Tried a side-pony this day. Ryan didn't realize it was on the side on purpose. Ha! 

He's so little! 

I had to take him to his 2 week appointment flying solo. Due to Covid, only one parent was allowed to go. And Ryan had to stay home with Addison anyways. He was starving after his appointment so I had to pull over and feed him on the way home. Everything was good at his two week appointment. He gets some goop in his eyes so I'm supposed to massage the nose area to get it worked through his tear ducts. That's about it! 

Strength Training

We were asking Addison if she could do the crab-walk..... and this is how that went. Ha!

And then she wanted to "help" Ryan do push ups. If you can see among all the toys scattered, Mason is watching them. He's kind of hard to see! 

We did try to do some educational things this summer! Parker gave us some of his old workbooks. So Addison has done some of those. Some of them are partially done, and she loves to point out if Parker didn't do something perfectly (in her mind). She's gonna be a handful...... 

Mason is only a couple weeks old in this photo but this is a common sight in our house. Wherever Mason is, Addison is usually close by! She was sitting next to him tell him about her day. She also loves to tell him what both Ryan and I are doing at the time. She likes to keep him informed :) 

Artwork

We enjoy doing handprint and footprint art at our house. It's usually a family event.... meaning it takes all of us to get it done - ha! We made a footprint tractor for my dad's 70th birthday last year. Addison wanted to make one for our house. So we finally did it. This was probably the first project we did that Ryan didn't have to help with! 

This one, we needed Ryan's help. Addison's feet were easy, but Mason's were a little harder. He participated in our project kicking and screaming.... literally. Ha! It was not easy, a 1 week old baby is super strong!! But we got some smudged tiny footprints. 

I have it on my list to buy more canvas' whenever I go back to Hobby Lobby. But with the way COVID is going, I might just order them on Amazon :) 

First bath at home

Addison was pretty excited to help with Mason's first bath at home. He wasn't too excited about it. We just did it in the bath chair on the bathroom counter. He was only supposed to be getting a sponge bath, so it didn't make too big of a mess. 

Mason cried and cried until Addison started scrubbing his head with a brush. Then he stopped and was peaceful. Addison was tickled pink with herself that she made him stop crying. 

We forgot how hard handling a newborn can be - he's so little and slippery when wet! I think Addison was ready to give him a bath herself :) 

Sweet sleeping baby

We did another little photo shoot :) 

This girl LOVES her little brother. And to prove how much, she has had a stomach bug the last couple days and she still was trying to make Mason smile when he was crying. She looked terrible and felt the same, but she still cared about how he was feeling :) 

Total 'mom-brain' and forgot to get the sign out for the first round of photos! So I had to do them all over again..... 

Had to take a photo of his hands above his head while he sleeps..... Addy and I do the same thing :) Ryan doesn't sleep with his hands up, but he does sleep with his knees bent and up in the air. ha! Nothing is sweeter than a sleeping baby. He looks so small as I'm typing this two months later! 

Mother's Day

We spent Mother's Day this year with a small part of the Julius family. Parker & Kelly got to meet Mason. 

Addison wanted to take our picture - ha! She likes to tell us "Say Cheese!! Oh I better take another one. Give me a good smile!  Look here at the camera!" All the things we usually have to say to her. 

When others hold Mason, Addison needs a turn. 

Holding that bottle again! 

Here is a better picture of our family of four :) It's been two months but it still feels weird to say that! We couldn't be happier though. We feel very grateful that God has blessed us with two happy and healthy kiddos! We hope it stays that way :) Addison however is making more life plans for us. Within the first week, she was telling us that when Mason gets older, we will have another baby. It will be a girl and we will name her Makena. Then the next time she told us, she was going to name it Grandma Rita. Then the name morphed into Grandma Makena. Ha! She is dead set we need another baby!! 

Week 1 photo

Addison loves having picnics inside. So we had a few lunch time picnics while she was home with me. Apparently we talked Ryan into joining us this day! 

Parker gave Addison some magna tiles with wheels, she loves them! She loves building different cars. They were definitely a hit. Ryan might enjoy them as much as Addison. She keeps having to re-build the car because I keep tripping over it while I walk around the house with Mason. Ha!

One week old! It was a tough first week with Ryan going back to work right away, but we somehow got through! 

He peed through all his jammies and we had to resort to the purple newborn jammies from Addison. I'm sure Ryan, Grandpa Ron, and Landon did not approve of this photo. :) Landon brought us tubs of Nolan's clothes when he visited a week later. No more girl clothes for this little boy! 

Can I hold the baby?

Addison asks a lot "Can I hold him?" She holds him for about a minute then she's done

She was pretty excited when we asked if she wanted to feed him. She loved to help when he first came home and two months later, still loves to do anything for him! 

I love the way Mason is looking up at Ryan in this one! Some happy kiddos with their dad. 

This was the first photo I got with Addison talking to Mason and trying to entertain him. He was 8 days old. Erin sent Mason some toys (in the photo) and Addison was SO EXCITED to show him and wanted him to play with them immediately. Every time his eyes were open, she was in his face with the toys. She wanted him to grab them and couldn't understand why he wouldn't. 

Kind of hard to see, but she's showing off her new stick-on earrings. I had them when I was younger and loved them. I had forgotten all about them until I was searching from something at Hy-Vee and stumbled across the hair products aisle. Christmas stick-on earrings on clearance :) She loves them and wants to put them on quite a bit. 

Ryan's parents came to meet Mason 8 days after he was born. Mason is the 4th grandchild on that side. 

Newborn photos

Addy is one proud big sister! She was so excited to hold him. I for some reason had complete confidence in her........ 

Probably the only newborn awake during photos - ha! 

But I spent long enough doing photos he fell asleep :) I tried to wrap him tight and thought I did a good job, but it doesn't look tight in the photos. 

My favorite one! I somehow caught a little smile. I give photographers credit, I don't know how they position newborns to make them look so good! Granted, I know newborn sessions can take a couple hours and we maybe spent 15-20 minutes doing photos. 

 I took some in the portrait mode that look really good, but they don't upload to my blog for some reason. Probably a computer issue, I know I need to update my viewer. He's two months old as I post this, I can't believe how much he's grown!

First week at home

Oh how I love a sweet sleeping baby! I don't feel like he slept as much as Addison the first week she was home. I remember Ryan and I thinking how easy things were with Addison that first week, we didn't know what everyone thought was so hard. HA! Yea well, things got harder after she stayed awake longer!! 

Well, we didn't learn our lesson. Guess in 4 years we forgot! We came home on a Saturday, got Addy back on Monday and Ryan started working again on Tuesday. THAT was hard. I was trying to care for a newborn, entertain a 4 year old, and heal from having a baby. Yikes. I would not suggest it! But we made it (somehow). 

She was so excited to hold him, it was hard to get her to look up at me! Oh, and just so you know how that first week went for me, we NEVER wear jammies all day. She is always dressed before lunch on a lazy weekend day. I think she wore those Cubs jammies Monday night to Wednesday afternoon. Thank you Mom for giving her a bath Monday night before I got her. Ha! 

Caught the slightest of a smile (or gas). 

Our first walk! And I sent this to Grandma Rita and she told me to get that baby back inside because it was too cold :) We only went to the mailbox and back (which is actually 2 blocks). Addy now has to graduate from the stroller to riding something or walking as I refuse to spend money on a double stroller!! And we don't have a lot of storage anyways. She hasn't complained yet! 

Apparently I took this at an awkward angle, his hand looks huge. It really is super tiny. 

My happy place. Not sure when I last showered or gave Addy a back, but we were happy. I had fed and burped him (hence the rag on my shoulder). Addison wanted me to read her a book, so I laid Mason down and she climbed up. Now, 2 months later, it is not uncommon for her to want to climb up with us when we are holding Mason. It's tight, but I love it. I wanted to remember the moment that both kids wanted to sit with me :) 

Coming Home

We FaceTimed with Addy around 2pm, a few hours after he was born. At that point, we hadn't decided on a name but we told her it was a boy. She was pretty excited. She told us she was so excited to tell Grandpa Ron. She apparently called him right away and told him that she had "a boy-sister". So when we called him, he still wasn't sure if it was a boy or a girl - ha! He would have been happy either way, but I think he was a little extra happy we get to experience the fun of a boy. We gotta get our left-handed pitcher in the family :) 

We called the rest of the family that afternoon/evening. Nolan was pretty excited to meet his new best friend. We told Brayden that Ryan got a best bud and he was pretty excited, knowing it was a boy then. Nicole was pretty excited to have somewhere to send all Nolan's clothes! 

Getting ready to go home! 

Taking a little snooze at home. 

Barely home from the hospital and holding his own bottle. Grandpa Ron was so proud - ha! 

This was Addison's reaction to us when she first saw us. She came to a stop and didn't come closer - ha! I think she was so giddy with excitement she didn't know what to do with herself. We came home on Saturday and picked her up on Monday night. 

Mason meets Addison, Grandma Rita and Grandpa Ron. He is grandchild number 7 and the 5th boy. 

She was a natural! She was so excited and kept saying "hi" and "he's so cute" in a super high pitched voice.

First picture as a family of four (it's not a good one, but it's the first one)