Uh Oh, You Caught Me!

 I went upstairs for just a few minutes and came back down to find this little monkey on top of the table helping himself to Vessel's uneaten yogurt and making a huge mess.  But he's just too cute to be mad at.  

Park Love

 This little boy is in love with the park.  He is braver than his brothers were at his age.  He will climb up to the tallest slide he can find and courageously throw himself down the slippery plastic chute without even a wince.  I'm glad he loves to play, but worry there might me many injuries in this adventurous little guy's future.  

Here he is with Vincent, one of the children I babysit after school. 

Baths Are Overrated

 This kid loves the shower

Lunchtime

Haven's First Haircut

Cutest behbeh

Delightful

He's such a happy boy.  I love his smile and his bubbly laughter. 

Haven's 1st Birthday!

 My little 11-11-11 baby just turned 1 today!  Here he is eating his cupcake like a champ and looking pretty happy about it.  The only downside to this day is that Mike was on a business trip and wasn't able to celebrate with us. 

Baby Loves Bathtime

 I think he's the most beautiful baby in the world.  

 

 

3 Loves of my Life

Haven Update

Twinkies!

C'mon, tell me these kids don't look exactly alike. It's undeniable, they could be twins!

Haven

Vessel

New Year New Perspective

So my last entry I wrote about some struggles I had been having trying to adjust to post pregnancy life and the presence of a baby in the home. Things have gradually gotten better. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm trying to feel more gratitude in my life and that seems to help a bunch. Also, never underestimate the power of prayer. I feel that sometimes during difficult days, prayer is the only thing that gets me through. It's also nice that Haven is older now. I know, he's only a mere 2 months now, but it seems like he's changed so much since his birth. He is hefty and growing out of his clothes like crazy. He has started to lose that newborn look and he is awake and alert more often during the day. He is smiling, cooing, and even laughing now. I'm amazed at how much these little things lift my spirits. He is sleeping very well at night and I am getting a bit more sleep which helps my mood. We have gotten into a routine and that has eliminated a good portion of my anxiety. Haven is very predictable and I know when he's going to be hungry and sleepy and I know why he's upset when he fusses and I can usually find the solution to calming him down. I have him all figured out and that definitely makes me feel more confident as a mother.

The Name Game

Mike and I really struggled to figure out a name for our 3rd child. It was like having Jacob all over again. Mike and I have such different ideas when it comes to what names sound good. It was so discouraging not being able to agree on a name for Jacob when he was born. I felt so strongly in my heart that he was meant to be Riven Jacob Bates. I loved Riven because it was unique and had a "v" in it like Vessel's name. I liked Jacob as a middle name because its a very Biblical name (just like Vessels middle name, Noah.) and also "normal," so if he ever wanted to fall back on his middle name, he could. I thought it would be nice to give all our kids unique first names, with common middle names (and/or religious/scriptural names.) But so much for that. We thought about using "Eleven" as a name for our third, of course, only if he was born on the eleventh (which he was.) It would've definitely been unique, but I couldn't really hear myself calling him "Eleven." I felt like Eleven would've been the perfect name if we had a girl because we could just call her "Eve" or "Evey," both names that Mike and I really love. I don't want it to sound like I wasn't excited to have another boy, because I was. It's just funny how Mike and I could agree on hundreds of girl names. A little ironic, eh? We also thought about using "November" as a name and calling him "Ember" for short. Ember was a name we considered last time when I was pregnant with Jacob. November is unique and suggests something about when he was born. But I couldn't get Mike totally on board with the idea. He thought "Eleven" or "November" would've been suitable for a middle name only. Mike liked the name "Elias" and when he told me about it, I liked it too. But I didn't want people to call him Eli for short. In the beginning I thought "Eleven Elias Bates" sounded great. Over time I agreed with Mike that Eleven was much better as a middle name. Turns out we never even used Eleven as part of our baby's name anyway. On the top of my list was "Adler" meaning "eagle" in Old German. I also liked the names Hawk, Rain, Riley, Nevata (meaning snowflake), Echo, Navarro, Baxley, Rylan, and Breckin. I couldn't say I was 100% in love with any of those names, however. I was grappling for something, ANYTHING, that Mike would agree on and that I could grow to love. And then while we were in the hospital after the baby was born, Mike was holding him and said, "What about Haven? He looks like a Haven to me." When I was in high school, our band performed a song called "Havendance" that was named after the composer's daughter. Ever since then I have always wanted to use the name Haven for my first born daughter. After the ultrasound confirmed we were having another boy, I thought that ship had sailed, and that I'd never get to use the name Haven. Mike said he was talking to a co-worker and she new a man named Haven. I big, strong cowboy of a man in fact. And then while looking through one of the name books we got from the library, I saw that Haven was listed under the boy section. Perhaps Haven wasn't as feminine as I thought it was. I considered Mike's proposal and it actually sounded perfect to me. As for the middle name, we decided on Elias because of it's scriptural reference. Wow, we actually both felt good about the name! And that's how Haven Elias Bates came to be.

Baby Gramps

Hey everyone. I am no longer pregnant! Yay! So Baby Gramps has arrived. Okay, okay, we didn't end up naming him Graham Paul (although, that woulda been funny and cute...) We went through about 8 name books this time, and even scoured the dictionary for names. It was rough, lemme tell ya. The good news is that he has a name, unlike Jacob who was "Baby Boy" for about a week after his birth. We decided on the name Haven Elias Bates. He was born on his due date 11/11/11 at 12:27pm. He was 8lbs. 12oz. and 21 inches. Biggest baby of ours so far. The babies get progressively bigger with each pregnancy. Coincidentally I get bigger with each pregnancy too, psh.

So right now Mike and Vessel are at church and I just got Jacob and Haven down for naps, AT THE SAME TIME, no less. Nice work, mama. I am pretty brain dead on account of Haven not sleeping a wink last night. First night in the hospital he was a dream. Slept well, ate well, and barely made a peep. Last night Mike and I took turns holding him, rocking him, changing him, and feeding him. Well, Mike didn't do much in that last department, actually. :) This kid just wants to eat a lot. I'm sure he'll be happy when my milk comes in. TMI? I think he's gonna be the one baby of ours who takes to the pacifier like a fish takes to water. The others did not want to be pacified. Haven, apparently does. He's got a pretty bad oral fixation, I'll give him that. He's cute though. I can see he resembles the others a little, while still maintaining his own look. He's got a nice round noggin' and a little bit of dark brown hair on top. Big cheeks and the "Bates nose." So far, Jacob has not been so thrilled about baby Haven being here. He's curious, of course, but also very ambivalent and jealous and not wanting to share his mama. :( Vessel, on the other hand, has been super excited and very helpful.

So I've got a ton more to tell you all. Like the particulars of the birth and delivery, cos I know you all want to hear the juicy details (no pun intended.) I also have a name post lined up to publish soon. Right now I better get some rest of my own, while the 2 little hooligans are asleep. Here are some pictures to wrap this up: