Someone New is At Our House...

Allie's favorite book for the past couple months is called "The Sister Book", and the first lines of the book are, "Someone new is at our house. Do you know who it is? It's our baby!" So I thought that was a fitting title.

Rowan is doing great! He has been taking in all the noise and stimulation of a house that already has two kids. Silas and Allie have been about as hyper as I've ever seen them over these last couple days! Lots of excitement with a new baby brother + many visitors + plus a lack of a routine = wild kids!

Rowan has been eating like a champ and is generally very pleasant so far. We had a bit of a rough night last night because he wasn't too interested in sleeping, but hopefully that phase won't last too long! Our families have been helping out, and we are very grateful for that.

One thing I'd like to clarify––my labor was longer than an hour. Nate may have misrepresented that in his earlier post. Contractions started around 9:30am and Rowan was born at 1:00pm. So, still not that long, but longer than an hour. The hour that Nate was referring to was the really painful part. But I did have many, many contractions in the weeks leading up to his birth, including several times when I thought I was in labor because I had regular contractions for several hours. So as my midwife told me, my body likes to spread labor out over the course of weeks, not hours.

Check back for more details about Rowan's birth and how he's adjusting to life at the Paine household!

Just minutes after Rowan was born––proud daddy!

A Big Brother twice over!

A new Big Sister! Allie had a swollen right eye
the day Rowan was born, so this picture looks a little odd.

Baby Rowan

Rowan David Paine was born at 1:00pm on Oct 18, 2013. He is 7lb 10oz and 20" long.

Rowan was born at home.  (Some of you may know that Allie was born at home by mistake.) This time it was on purpose and Jen was assisted by 2 great midwives.  As with Allie, the labor was very quick - about 1 hour.

Rowan has been eating and sleeping well right off the bat.  Silas and Allie are very excited to have a little brother.  This time Silas was at school but Allie got to be there right after baby Rowan was born.

Thanks for everyone's prayers and encouragement!  Jen will want to do a more complete post once she's feeling up to it, but for now, these two photos will have to do.

Nate

Baby's Room

With 10 days to go until our due date, everything is basically ready for our little guy to come! Since we don't have a spare bedroom for him, he's going to be sleeping in my (Jen's) closet for a while. It's a mini-walk-in closet, so he'll have enough room. More importantly, I'll have enough room to feed him at night, change his diaper, and put him to bed without disturbing Nate. Our bed is only about 10 feet away from the closet, but we hung a curtain to keep the light out, and give some privacy.

Over the last few months, I cleaned my things out of the closet, and decorated the little room to look more like a nursery. We set up the bassinet in there, and found a great deal on a used changing table––$11 at a local consignment store! Our rocking chair even fits (barely). The baby's clothes, diapers and other supplies are all tucked in baskets in the shelves and on the floor in the back. So, for now, it seems like it will work...

Here's some pictures of the "room" with the curtain open:

"The Small Gym"

Allie absolutely loves going to the Little Gym for gymnastics class (she calls it the "Small Gym")! She's been getting more confident and improving her skills each week. Here's some photos from her class today.

Allie hangs from the rings, a favorite activity of hers.

Running up the slopping mat, then she rolled down the other side.

Practicing an activity where you roll down
with a beanbag under your chin...
(she didn't master that one yet)

Climbing up some different shaped mats

The kids making a train

Bouncing up and down on a ball

At the end of class, the teacher
blows bubbles on the kids' bellies. 

School, gymnastics and a bonfire

We are in full preparation mode right now with only four weeks left before our due date! We prepared the baby's "room" (which is a small walk-in closet), sorted and washed the clothes (we're glad we saved Silas' baby clothes), put together the bassinet, and started to gather the supplies we'll need for the first few weeks. There's still lots to do, but at least the bigger things are coming together.

Meanwhile, Silas is doing pretty well in school. He's had some escapades already, and given his teachers some unexpected opportunities to get exercise, but they are doing their best to work with his challenges. We truly feel blessed by the teachers and therapists he has this year! God worked out his schooling this year knowing exactly what he would need. We just have to praise Him for that!

So right now Silas is staying at school until 2:00, which allows him to go to art, music, PE and library with his class. He also gets in some extra recess time, and eats lunch in the cafeteria with the big kids! In a few weeks we'll tack on the last hour and a half so that he'll be full day! He seems to enjoy himself, and is learning how to spell and write his name. We just ordered some books from Scholastic...I remember how much fun it was as a kid to pick out books from their catalog! And now we're doing it as parents. It's crazy.

Allie just started a gymnastics class last month, and she is a total natural! She hangs, climbs, jumps, bounces, rolls and runs around the gym with the biggest grin on her face. She surprises me with the amount of strength and coordination she has. No matter what the teacher shows them, she will immediately imitate it. She even volunteered on Friday to be a "helper" when the teacher asked for someone. She has no fear when it comes to trying out new moves. It been a delight to see her enjoy herself and learn new things there.

Here's a few recent photos...

On a recent Saturday, Nate and Silas gathered some wood for a bonfire.

Or rather, Nate gathered and Silas followed in his car.

They carried branches for several hours, and burned through a lot of wood!

Allie showing off her church dress.

Silas enjoying some marble action while listening to his therapy music.

Jen's Dad with the kids on the trail––
putting the stroller to the test!

Beach Bums

We called Ocean City our home for about 10 days this summer, and the kids truly became beach bums. They never tired of the beach, sand and surf. In fact, Silas practically became one with the sand––he would literally lie down in it and rub his face in it. Probably some kind of sensory-seeking exercise for him. Allie enjoyed the beach as well, although she didn't wear quite as much sand as Silas did. Whenever we came back to the house we were staying, clean-up was an extensive process.

Besides the beach, we also visited the Cape May Zoo, which was a surprisingly awesome zoo. There were baby snow leopards frolicking around, giraffes, tigers, bears, and many other animals that you could get rather close to. The kids also loved the carousel and playground there. Visiting the zoo will probably become a yearly tradition!

Some other highlights include lots of walks on the boardwalk, going on rides at Pirates Cove and Wonderland Pier, testing out equipment at a local playground, and eating lots and lots of pasta and pizza from the local take-out restaurants!

Pictures can tell more of a story than words, so I'll let them do the rest of the talking.

One of the kids' favorite activities was digging holes in the sand with Nate.

And then, of course, climbing in the hole!

Silas  beginning to cover himself with sand.

Allie trying out monkey bars for the first time.

This is a cool series of Silas with his chair in the water. 

He sat for a long time while the waves splashed over his legs.

The tide gradually rose until...

...Silas was sitting in water. He didn't seem to mind!

Jen put Allie's hair in pigtails for the first time.

Riding the carousel at the Cape May Zoo.

Jen helped the kids make rudimentary sandcastles.

Allie enjoyed the pool that Nate made in front of our spot on the beach.

Cute picture of Silas and Nate.

On a rainy day, we took the kids to Wonderland Pier.

One of many rides the kids rode while it poured outside on the boardwalk.

A Welcome Visit

Silas and Allie had some of their favorite relatives around this past month, and they loved every single minute! Nate's brother Jon and his wife Geri were staying in the area while having repairs done to their car––a lovingly-restored VW Westy. It's a sleeper bus from the 70s that Jon and Geri have poured copious amounts of time and effort into to prepare it for a cross-country trip. (Some of you may have seen it stored in our driveway this winter.)

So as the car got the finishing touches at a specialist mechanic in the city, Jon and Geri were able to visit with us and the kids quite a bit. It was awesome to have them here for so long, and we will miss them! Have a great trip guys!