The past 2 weeks...

Tomorrow's Kaitlyn's due date! Guess we've gotten quite a jump on life with our little Kaitlyn. She's almost 3 weeks old now and it seems like she's been in our life forever already...we can't imagine our family without her. James is always including her in everything we do and wants to know where she is at all times. He enjoys holding her and asks all the time to help. He will get his pillow all ready for her to be put in his arms so he can kiss her and talk to her. She seems to like it when he holds her too and she will stare quietly at him which makes James laugh and smile so proudly.

We took our first family outings this past weekend - one to the pumpkin patch for James and daddy to take a hayride through the cornfield and one to Target. Mom was pretty proud of herself for getting through both trips and Kaitlyn did great too :-)

Welcome precious angel, Kaitlyn Grace

Well, we did it. We made it to 37 weeks and 3 days and then we were blessed with the healthy and uncomplicated arrival of our daughter: Kaitlyn Grace Hartigan. She is perfect in every way. Weighing in at 5lbs 6oz at birth and 19 inches long, she's our little peanut. James has already told her he loves her so much and has interestingly developed a new tone of voice since she has been home: this cute, soft higher pitched voice that exumes love. It has been so remarkable to watch this reaction. Now, we aren't saying we are niave, we know this sweet fascination is going to wear off, but please let us bask in it right now!
Mom is healing well and every day feeling a little bit more like a human again.

We can't thank everyone enough for their well wishes and prayers throughout this whole journey to bring Kaitlyn home to our family.

Waiting for baby sister

Daddy took some pictures this weekend out in the yard of us waiting patiently for baby sister. Waiting is definitely the hardest part, especially when you are 2 and you really don't quite understand WHAT it is everyone is waiting FOR. None the less, James has been quite a trooper these past few weeks as we've been working hard on getting all the projects complete before she makes her debut. Mom finished the mural in her room this weekend and we even got the furniture delivered. Dad has quite easily been doing the work of 5 normal people every day and we don't know what we'd do without his brute strength, endless energy and ability to make anything that seems to be stressful, magically go away. Theoretically, we have about 2 weeks left to wait for our little girl, but as we know, babies have their own schedule and we're now taking our queues from the belly dweller for the duration! We shall see...

Tractor Parade

Every year for Labor Day, the neighboring town has a big parade of tractors: antique tractors, new tractors and also, tractors with floats and themes. We had a great time watching the show down main street and an even better time getting to see all the tractors up close at the park after the parade. Thanks to Uncle Kevin for the John Deere hat James received earlier in the day! Don't know about James, but that night mommy had dreams of tractors dancing thru her head...

What's going on in my yard?

Dad has been itching for this outdoor excavation/tree cutting project for four years (as he keeps mentioning). So this week, James was pleasantly surprised to see the mini excavator and dump truck in his yard. The guys have gotten a big kick out of a two year old who can identify the mini excavator and all the parts on it (note: those are crawler tracks, not wheels). James had a treat yesterday when he got to ride in the dump truck and even use the controls on the excavator. We figured once baby girl comes, we're all going to be pretty preoccupied so better to get things all done now. At once. Stressful? Na. Basement is DONE, interior painting is all done (except mom better get going on the mural) and now the outside project is near completion. Should make for a nice, quiet (??) fall and winter.
Also, baby girl has been in the cooker now for 33 weeks. What a haul so far. She'll be making her debut around mid October, a little sooner if mom gets her wish. James has his own baby doll that he has been shushing and loving these days too. Only downside there is that he chose a cabbage patch doll and the head is rather hard. Especially when it hits YOU in the head at 545am with the small person demand, "mommy hold my baby, I get up in bed." Ouch and good morning. :-)

We did it, we made it to the annual Bridgewater Fair last weekend despite the wacky weather and mom's fear she wasn't going to be able to handle the heat. James was super excited to go and talked about it for the entire week before: "aand, we go to fair to see red tractor that man was washing" "we go to fair to see sheep, cows and chickens!" you see, we drive by the fairgrounds on our way to nanny and boppa's house and James saw a man getting a tractor ready and wanted to ride it, I promised he could at the fair. Thankfully, see pictures, there was a red tractor to ride! James also loved playing in the cornbox (a fancy country fair sand box w/ corn instead of sand). What mom thought was funny was the cow with the large eye that would peer over the side of the fence over dad's head the entire time we were sitting there. I think he wanted a part of the cornbox.

Whoops, we've been missing again! Life in a nutshell: lots of smiles and funny faces, lots of sitting down for a big tired momma and lots of entertainment courtesy of James. We just celebrated with the Imschweilers in Julia's christening this past weekend. While sitting in the pew, James insisted to mommy that it was a birthday party and that we should sing to Julia. To his defense, he has only been to events so far that ARE birthday parties, so it did seem to make sense. We've been busy getting ready for our baby girl and are happy to report that her room is officially pink now. This is helping it sink in a bit for big brother. Next step is for mom to paint the mural and get some furniture...So different with #2! But rest assured, she will have a beautiful room by mid October.