The Pollard Place: July 2017

Wow! I had been waiting for July for so long, that now that it's over I feel like I just blinked. This month was a big adjusting period for us, and we got to have our hearts grow. We love our little family of four, with all of the crying, tantrums, sleepless nights, hugs, kisses and smiles. It is busy but it sure is wonderful. I got in the car the other day and looked back and saw my two babies in their mirrors and just said out loud, "I have two kids! Two of them!" My parents and Rusty got a kick out of that, but it really is a little surprising still!

The month started out with the Fourth of July! I was so HUGE, so we just played it really safe and stayed home. We went to the church for a breakfast and a little kid bike parade. We were pretty sure that Henry would love the parade, but it was even better than I thought! He got the biggest grin on his face and was so happy to be with all of the big kids.

There was face painting at the breakfast, but we missed it so when we went home I painted some stars on Henry's face. Then we had a BBQ and played around in the pool at our house. When it started to get dark we went out with some of the fireworks that we bought and did those with Henry, and he was pretty impressed and excited! Then our neighbors had huge ones that they let off, so we sat back and enjoyed those too.

The next big thing that happened, was two days later! We went to the beach at Lundeen Park and then I started to feel sick so we went home. Then I started having contractions and we rushed to the hospital and our sweet Adeline was born just before midnight on July 6. For Rusty's mom's present we had to take a family picture, so this is what we managed to pull off haha. Her arms are crazy, but let me tell you, pictures are hard with two kids and when you had a baby like two days ago. Not the ideal time for photos.

Adjusting to being a family of four has been harder in some ways than we thought, and easier in others. It has been exhausting but rewarding. We can't imagine what we ever did without Adeline!

One of our first outings was going to the petting zoo! We thought this would be really fun for Henry, and little impact on Della. He had a blast! He for some reason is really obsessed with goats haha. He kept trying to hug them!

This time we did it a little bit differently, and had Rusty stay home for the first week at home and then my parents came. It was really nice to have some quiet time with just our family at first to adjust and to not totally freak Henry out, but we sure were excited to have Grandma and Papa come!! Hooray for awesome grandparents! We had a lot of fun with them and did lots of fun things, including riding a horse at the petting zoo, making rice krispies and going to some parks.

The petting zoo was a lot of fun! We had just been there last week, but this time was the first time that Henry got to ride a horse! I thought he would be nervous, and he was a little bit at first. But he actually really loved it!

After the petting zoo we went out for Mexican! It was Adeline's first restaurant :)

It was really fun to be able to put Adeline in one of my old outfits. As an added bonus, Mom and Dad were there to see it too!

Another fun thing that we did was do a Thomas the Train ride! Henry likes Thomas and loves getting to ride tractors or cars of any kind, so we thought he would really like this. Man, he LOVED it! For days after he kept asking if he could "more ride Thomas? Please more ride Thomas?" When we first got there he did a bounce house, we ate food, and got him a hat and whistle.

He just kept hanging his arms out the window yelling, "Hi! I'm riding Thomas!"

We love Grandma and Papa!

We were also lucky enough to have some other visitors! Grandma and Kandi came for a few days, and Angie and her family stopped by for a few hours. It was so fun to see everyone.

Rusty got broken. He went for a mountain biking ride and fell going off a jump. He ended up breaking eight ribs, front and back, his scapula, separated his shoulder's AC joint and collapsed a lung. For a while we were worried that he would even need surgery. It was really hard to see him in so much pain, and he really felt bad because of the timing. Adeline was just under two weeks old. But, he was pretty proud because all of the doctors were impressed that he broke his scapula. I guess that's really uncommon (just ask him- it's less than 1%). :)

Henry's Highlights:

Says "Ok" after everything. And he actually kind of yells it. Like, "Mommy play in sand box OK!" Or "Henry clean up OK!"
He loves to count! He counts to 10, and sometimes up to 15!
When he wakes up from a nap he comes down and sticks his head around the corner and says, "All done, nu night?" in the sweetest little voice.
He sings lots of songs, and we kind of die over it. Our favorites are Sweet Pea and Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree. Also, anytime that Della is crying he runs over to her and starts singing. Usually it's just made up like how he likes us to sing to him, so it goes "Lightning, Sally, Mater". Or if we sing together it's The Wheel's on the Bus. He loves to sing to her to make her stop crying.
He is talking like crazy! It is so fun to hear him express whole thoughts and ideas.
Henry is in a phase where he loves dinosaurs, and is also terrified of them. He will get scared going from one room to another and come back running yelling "dinosaurs!" and his little face is so scared it breaks my heart.
Henry has the tiniest little bum. He is in 3T tops and 18 month bottoms, and he still can't keep his pants up. He will just come running saying, "Help! Pants down!"

I have started to try to show him cool old Disney movies, and he watched Peter Pan every day for like a week with Rusty right after I had Adeline. He and Rusty would sing the crocodile song all of the time haha.

He is truly such a good big brother. He loves to give her pats and sing to her, and to give her a binky. He struggles a little bit because he wants to play with her and she can't do anything, so he just keeps asking, "Della play?" "Della done ni-night?" Poor guy.

Adeline's Adventures:

She rolled over. THREE TIMES. What in the world has happened. We put her on her stomach to take some newborn pictures, and she rolled over. Thinking it was a fluke, we just laughed and put her back on her stomach and then she did it again! Then a week later she did it again! Ahhh. We tried to swaddle her for a while, but man she hates it. She fights against it all night, it's not even worth it.

She is a pretty good sleeper! She will go for a few hours most nights, at least two.
We've gotten lots of sleepy smiles, but are still waiting for an awake one! She likes to be right in the middle of everything, looking outward, and be held.

She has a little dimple on her left cheek and I just swoon over it. Oh, and I think her eyes might be blue which makes me so happy! Rusty is hoping for brown like mine, and I'm hoping for blue like his.

Della loves music, she always quiets down with music. One of her favorites is Brahm's Lullaby.
She has three stork bites; back of her neck, head, and then some dots like a connect the dots in between her eyes in the shape of Maui's fish hook :) I'm so proud!!
Adeline is a mommy's girl so far. :) And after Henry being such a daddy's boy, I sure am loving this. She will be crying when someone else is holding her and as soon as I take her she instantly stops.
So many firsts!!!