Inaugural Train Ride

We took our first train ride of the season today!  Clark was unsure what to think of it, but Calvin was very, very excited to be back on it again!

So much has changed since riding it the last couple weekends in the fall!

Of course, we couldn't be at the park without a little more fun.  Calvin has been coming to this playground since just before his first birthday.  (He spent time here even before we closed of this house!)  Of course, he especially loves visits with Daddy because they are a bit more rare.

 Clark loved the swings today. 

It brought back fun memories of taking Calvin to a park for the first time when he was just about a month older than Clark is now.

Today, though, Calvin only spent a couple minutes on the big boy swing before climbing up the jungle gym every way possible.

These days, he is loving the big "noodle" slide, the rock wall, ladders, and playing make believe with the set up underneath it.

I'm so excited about all the fun we have ahead of us at this park this summer!

Two Weeks of Germs

We've had a rough couple of weeks around here.  Calvin spent almost a week with a cold virus.  He was a sad little boy with a fever and no appetite.

More than once, I found him wanting to play with Clark but unable to do much of anything but lay next to him on the floor.  It made me feel terrible for him. 

Unfortunately, that meant Clark was front and center with the germs and came down sick a week later.  Clark took it a step further and got pink eye on top of the cold, though.

Shortly thereafter, the germs caught up with me and then Devin a few days later.  Then, Calvin's seasonal allergies flared up before spending yesterday with an upset stomach.  Thankfully, the boys were both still their cute, sweet, funny selves but were just sleeping a bit rougher.  We are all on the mend now, though, and I'd really, really like to keep it this way!

Cousin Time

In the space of less than a year, Calvin and I managed to see almost all of the nieces and nephews on both sides.  This started with a trip to visit my parents last March where we spent time with my sister's two boys.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures of them together that trip.

Over the summer, all the Stephens cousins were together for the Fourth of July.  Calvin especially fell in love with Mary and Luke that visit and referred to Andy as "Baby Candy."

Mary was gracious enough to give Calvin lots of rides in the Jeep which won him over very quickly.

And, Luke took the time to find things he and Calvin could do together at the playground, which was very sweet.  This was especially true since Calvin was still a bit awkward and timid at barely two years old.

Later that month, Baby Charlotte came to visit with her parents for a weekend.  Calvin thought it was a lot of fun to try to teach her things but wasn't at all excited about sharing the tub with her.

Shortly thereafter, my sister came to visit with her two kids.  And, my Dad surprised us by showing up for two days of the visit as well!

Calvin loved showing his barely younger than him cousin all of his favorite things around here.

And, having an almost one year old cousin trying to keep up with him was pretty fun for Calvin as well.

In October, we had all the Stephens cousins together again, and this time Clark was around for it, too!

Lastly, I was finally able to meet my sister's son Sam at the beginning of March just a couple of weeks before his first birthday.  This would have made for seeing all of the nieces and nephews in one year, but my older sister had her third child just hours before Sam got here.  We had a lot of fun with Sam, though!

Now, it's time to start another year with lots of cousin time!

Those Months I Missed Posting...aka Summer...

I don't want to forget what happened to us over all these months of blog slacking, so I'm just diving back in.  I thought I would recap what happened with all of us over the months of the summer before Clark was born.

In addition to turning two, Calvin had a lot of fun moments and a few cute quirks that made the summer special.  Among them: He wore his bacon tie every day but Sunday for months.  We got lots of fun comments about it, but Calvin thought it was just normal.

He also took to wearing his stethoscope quite often (and always to doctors appointments and visiting Daddy at work).  Calvin got his own WVU hat for his birthday, and wouldn't leave the house without it.  In fact, he still doesn't like to leave without it.  It was very convenient because he is just so pale, and we loved having the extra protection (in addition to his daily sunscreen).

We spent quite a few days playing at the splash pad.  It was always a reminder of how much he'd changed since our days there the summer before.

Calvin also got to swim in a real swimming pool for the first time since he was ten weeks old.  He was really excited leading up to it but then timid for the first while we were there.  After a while, he warmed up to it and ended up having a lot of fun, though.

Calvin also enjoyed lots of mornings at the park, in story time, and visiting the children's museum.  There was also a lot of time with extended family this summer, and Calvin was old enough to really connect with all the visitors.

My summer kicked off with a new phone and a cold stone cake to celebrate my 28th birthday.  We ordered this cake in homage to "Get Smart" and because we wanted to get a good reaction when I picked up the cake "my husband ordered for me."  It was as amusing as I hoped, and I enjoyed every fattening bite!

Unfortunately, I fractured my toe Fourth of July weekend.  After toughing it out the whole weekend, I finally gave in and got it checked out.

The confirmed break landed me in a big, hot, heavy boot for three weeks.  It was amazing how it made my foot feel so much better, but it definitely limited me and what we could do the month of July into August.

Even once the boot came off, I was still trapped wearing tennis shoes all the time.  It made for some amusing outfit combos, but it was such a relief from the boot.

Of course, I spent the summer growing a human, too.  Dad drew a wonderful portrait of me during one of his visits.

And, it was amazingly accurate!

Unsurprisingly, Devin had to spend a lot of the summer working.  We visited at work just as much as we could which helped a lot.

Devin also finished his intern year this summer!  We were all pretty excited about that!  Transitioning to second year (PGY2) meant different responsibilities, a return of night shift, and the addition of moonlighting.  It has also put us just that much closer to the finish line of residency!

Devin also celebrated the big 3-0 this summer!  We bought the biggest Cold Stone cake they sell for his clinic that day.  Unfortunately, it didn't fit in the freezer until we cut it in half.  So, I made sure to decorate it extra nice after piecing it back together the next day.

Calvin was disappointed we couldn't light candles at the clinic, so we had a repeat with an extra slice of cake that evening for his sake.

We also decided to try out buzzing Devin's hair this summer.  While we've decided a straight buzz is just a little but to extreme for him, he has taken to wearing his hair much shorter as a result of this experiment.

Annnnd, that pretty much sums up our summer!  We had lots of fun, but it really just boiled down to a collection of little moments and habits that all strung together into great memories.  It seems like a lifetime ago--especially since none of this includes Clark.  But, it really was a fantastic summer!

Halloween 2014

I absolutely loved that Calvin wanted to go with a "Where the Wild Things Are" theme this Halloween!

I was really proud of myself for sewing these costumes (without patterns!), too.

Devin worked to complete this set of chain mail in time for Halloween.  It was a big hit!

After a short stint of trick or treating, we let Calvin choose one piece of candy.  Amazingly, he wanted a sucker and never bit it, so it lasted the rest of the evening!

Clark hung out with Daddy while I took Calvin out.  He made a pretty cute little Halloween baby!

And, I have to include Calvin's jack-o-lantern, because I was so proud of it!  He traced the outside with a stencil, but the rest was all free hand drawn!

Welcome Clark David!

On August 17 at 12:20 pm we welcomed Clark David into our family!  He was 8 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches long with an amazing head full of hair!

The day before he was born, we had one last outing as a family of three.  Because of Calvin's love of trains, we spent the afternoon at the North Carolina Transportation Museum.  Even better, it was close to our favorite little Cuban food restaurant that we visit only occasionally because it's a few towns over.  It was the perfect last family outing.  All week, I'd told myself that I couldn't go into labor before that day because I wanted that trip so much.

That evening, we headed home full of food and happy.  While loading pictures of our wonderful day onto my laptop from my camera, Calvin asked to take a picture.  Devin helped him capture what would become the last picture of me this pregnancy.  As the evening wore on, I had slightly more intense contractions than I'd been having most evenings that week.  But, I chalked it up to all the walking and spicy food of the day.  When we headed to bed close to midnight, I noticed I had two seven minute gaps between contractions in a row as I drifted to sleep.  But, I was able to sleep soundly for four-ish more hours before waking up to go to the bathroom.  With a few bathroom trips between 4 and 5 am, I started timing contractions and realized I was still having them at regular seven minute intervals and woke Devin up.

At this point, I started to feel a little nervous.  I was remembering what labor felt like.  But, a nice, long shower calmed me down, and Devin and I spent the next couple hours laughing, talking, and drinking Powerade.  He headed to a quick meeting at the church at 8 am, and I got to spend a little time snuggling Calvin when he woke up.  Wonderful friends of ours picked him up just before nine (right as Devin got back), and took him to church with them.  Loading my "baby" in the car to go have another baby was the hardest part of the whole experience for me.  Shortly after that, we started getting ready to go to the hospital.

Honestly, the whole experience of being in the hospital was amazing.  And, once I was confident that Calvin was cared for and was able to focus on being in labor, it was actually a lot of fun.  We laughed and joked our way through triage with the nurses and the doctor.  It was pleasant to be told that I didn't look like someone in labor, and the doctor expected to be sending me home.  But, at 10:45 am, I was admitted while dilated to a 6 and contracting every four minutes.  Devin was the most amazing labor coach ever.  I spent time on a labor ball and worked through every contraction with him.  Right at noon, I was about ready to go, and I had my water broken.  I had to wait through three contractions and then pushed through a few more.  In those moments, I was completely focused on Devin...and how hot my face felt.  But, he helped me through the contractions perfectly, and the physician let us do that on our own.  When Clark was born, Devin announced that he was a boy and cut his cord.  He was so tiny and perfect and loud, and I needed him in my arms instantly.  He took to nursing pretty quickly and I was able to hold him for about an hour and twenty minutes before they needed to do anything with him.  Thankfully, this delivery was much less traumatic for my body, so I was able to enjoy that time even more.  By the end of this time, we had decided on a name and had started sharing it with our families.

Almost exactly 24 hours after the last photo of the "three of us" was captured, Calvin was visiting the hospital to meet his new brother.  I loved getting this first picture of the "four of us."

Devin began referring to himself as "Dad 2.0" in the hospital.  While much of this experience is new, there is still plenty that came back to us.  And, most importantly, we've already gained our confidence as parents.  It takes a whole lot more to phase us this time around than it did last time.  This has made adding a second child much easier than we expected and much easier than the initial transition to parenthood as well.  Once again, Devin took the opportunity of having a new baby to pamper and care for me as well.

Calvin immediately took to being a big brother.  From the moment he saw him, Calvin has been head over heels for "Baby Clark."  We've never had to worry about Calvin intentionally hurting Clark, but we do have to make sure he isn't too generous with hugs and kisses.

Calvin has taken it as his personal responsibility to teach Clark everything he needs to know.  I've lost count of the number of times I've listened as Calvin taught Clark about his body parts, colors, numbers, animals, and assorted toys.

The best moments, though, are when he doesn't think anyone is listening and I overhear him telling Clark how much he loves him.  Hearing him say, "I love you Baby Clark.  I love my brother." will melt my heart every single time.

It's amazing to realize that more than a month has flown by with Clark in our home.  He has been a rather easy baby, too.  He is much more noisy than Calvin was, but he sleeps longer stretches.  He's a champion nurser and has managed to gain a pound a week since his three day weight check--coming in at 11 lbs 13.5 ounces at a month and a day old!  He loves to be worn in a baby carrier, has started smiling, and melts when you stroke his chubby little face.

I am so very excited to be his mom and look forward to each and every day with him!

Seven

Happy Fourth of July!

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