Child Abuse, Sam, & Swimming Lessons

So below you will see pictures of my poor son who looks like he has been beat up. The poor kid had a rough few days and his face and body have the marks to prove it. We started out with a goose egg just below his eye when Gabi punched him on the trampoline!!! That's right my sweet little Gabi hit him in the face. She admitted it without hesitation and I am not sure if that is because all the kids had already said she did it or if she did not think it was that big a deal. Either way I have no idea how she managed to give him a black eye, but she did. Then she bit him the following day because she wanted a toy he had and he told her she couldn't have it. that was on his stomach!!! Then I scratched him taking a piece of paper from him, in the nose, you can't see that mark, but its there right in the front part of his nose. My thumb got him. Then the last instance was also yesterday when he was pretending to be a horse with Gabi and he ran into the wall. He came to me crying and said the wall hit him...then I saw the big slice on his nose where he lost the skin! He has really been thru it the past few days. I told Brad at swim lessons everyone would think he had been beaten!!! His eye looks so bad now that it is bruising up...I think this may be his first black eye. I figured if one of my kids would give the other a black eye it would have been the other way around.

I just wanted to add a few pictures of Sam. He is smiling all the dang time!!! He is such a sweet little baby. He coos and makes noise all the time now like he is talking to us and laughs in his sleep. It is a cute little chuckle!

We started swimming lessons today and both the kids did great. I was a little worried, but I think there is safety in having your sibling there. Gabi was totally fine and walked right over with no hesitation and Brad did the same. It was fun to watch them. Gabi wanted to be by Brad and they both have friends in this class this year. Ben and Belle are twins and Brad and Gabi have been very fortunate to have made friends with them this year. They are great kids and we have had lots of fun with them so it is nice to have them in our swim class as well. Gabi is in a tiny weenie yellow polka dot bikini, but tomorrow we have to wear a whole piece because her shorts kept falling off of her!!!

I think they looked hilarious in these goggles at the house!

Time for an Update

Well so much for keeping pictures of my every changing, yummy, and sweet new baby Sam on my blog! Life with 3 is busy so normally when it is bed time for the kids I am running around trying to get done everything I didn't during the day. Here's a little update of the Harris Family!

Sam:

Is 2 months old!!!! How can this be! The picture of him in his diaper is from his 2 mo check up. He was 13 lbs. 9oz! He is bigger than both Brad and Gabi at this point. he is really filling out and I love a chuncky baby!!! Cute as can be. Not a great sleeper, but yummy little cheeks and a smile that will literally brighten your day no matter what is going on. He makes us laugh when he crys, when he poops, when he just lays there doing nothing. We love this little guy.

Brad:


5 years old!!! That is right my little baby, my first, our trial and error child is 5! He wanted a Lightening McQueen themed party so we did a lightening McQueen cake and race track with cupcakes around it! It turned out pretty dang cute and Brad kept telling me while I was icing it, "mom this is wonderful, I love you, thank you." Nothing makes me happier than to hear this from my kids! My good friend Betsy Lees did the party favors and sign for the party and they were so stinking cute! Thank you Betsy you are AWESOME!!! We had races outside for the kids and played a little baseball at his party and served the infamous Brad Harris hamburger and hotdog on a grill! Brad is getting so good at grilling and I love it because he is cooking and I'm not!!! :-) Brad is done with pre-school and we are excited about Pre-K next year. Hard to believe my baby could be ready for pre-k next year...where is the time going?

Gabi:

She loves to get her toe nails and finger nails painted. She first had this done by Mamaw and then Mrs. Welsh bought her all kinds of paint and so now she is constantly asking me to paint them. I really like doing it even though anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a girly girl. So far we have done purple and pink in the last week and she is so stinking cute about it. Gabi is what I would call the perfect girl. She can kick butt but she still wants to be cute doing it. She takes nothing off of anyone, and she trys to keep us all in line by telling us what to do, how to do it and when....she will also let you know if you didn't do it right! We love our Gabi!!! Our house would be so dull and quite without her.

Big Brad:

3 weeks left of his residency at Sacred Heart and then he starts his Pediatric Residency at Temple in Philadelphia! He is really excited to get started and it feels so good to know that in 2 years we will be done with school and Brad will have achieved his dream of being a Pediatric Dentist. He turns 32 tomorrow and so me and the kids baked a cake and took pizza to his office today to surprise him. He looked confused when we got there, but he was really happy with his birthday surprise. Brad has been working on getting his license in PA, he has his license activated in Texas, but now he is trying to get it here in PA so he can moonlight while in his residency. There is so much paperwork to fill out and fees to pay it is hard to keep track of it all, but hopefully he will get approved when the Board meets in July without having to take the NERBS.

Me:

I am trying to keep up with my kids! Take them to the park, get them lunch, dinner, bathes, read with them and my favorite time of the day is bed time! I love bed time!!! I get to hold Sam without anyone asking me for something and kiss on him until he finally goes to sleep which at this point is whenever he feels like it. I look forward to a schedule for him. I am working on developing a new course at Arcadia, getting ready for Audit and Intermediate Theory in the Fall (these are 2 of my favorite classes to teach so I am so excited to get started in the Fall), teaching for Becker CPA review a couple of times this month and several times in August. I try to do my work at night when the kids go to bed, which means sleep is like a long lost friend, but it keeps me active in my field and I get a small break from my kids 1 or 2 nights a week which is a win win for everyone. I love teaching and each time after a class I have a stronger desire to go back to school and get my PhD, but then I come home and play with the kids and I think...it can wait...my kids are growing fast and I don't want to miss it...and school will always be there right. Plus with Brad in school it's not the right time...but I digress.

I hope everyone is doing well. I see alot of you are facebook now, and I am not facebook savy...but I am going to try and check it to see what everyone is doing.

Our 3 Kiddos

We had pictures of the kids taken when Sam was two weeks old. He looks like little Brad with blonde hair although I do see my dad in him as well!

The kids did so good for the pictures it was almost dreamlike...I was worried no one would cooperate, but all was well! I think the pictures were super cute and wanted to share.

We are doing good adjusting to life with 3 kids. I think we mainly just move alot slower and are a little more tired, but he is a good baby and it is fun to have a baby again. It is funny to me how different it feels this time. It's like the crying, diaper changes, and sleepless nights are not as big of a deal. I guess because you have done it before. The biggest challenge for me has been figuring out how to be a mom to a newborn and still keep the other two entertained. The kids are doing great with Sam so that helps.

Brad has said several times that he is so happy that Sam is here and not in my belly anymore! He also says, "Mom when you eat alot and get big again with a baby, can we name him Brad because we need another Brad!" I have no idea why he thinks you have a baby when you eat alot because he has never asked how we got Sam in my belly...he just came up with this on his own and I am fine with his logic as long as he is!

Gabi loves to kiss him...constantly! She wants to hold him or kiss him! She tells us, "Sam is cute or Sam is crying, or mom Sam wants you to give him milk!" A little mommy already!

SAM

Our baby boy arrived 3/26/09 at 6:22pm. He weighed in at 8lbs 7ozs and was 21 inches long! He had BLONDE hair which was a first for us and he is sweet and cute and wonderful!

Misc

This week on Thursday I went out with Betsy to see the movie Bride Wars. It was showing at the Emmaus Theatre, which is the really cool old timey theatre that shows movies for $3 and only one at a time. I love it....anyway I digress. So Betsy gave me some gifts for Sam all of which were wonderful, but one in particular was so cute I still can't believe she made it. She knitted some cowboy boots for Sam and they even have his initials on them. They have an S on the side and an H on the top. So cute!!! Thank you Betsy!!!

Then on Saturday we took the kids bowling for some family of 4 fun before Sam gets here. No telling when Brad and I will be able to get out with 3 kids. We are pretty slow on the parenting thing so we figured some fun was in order before we lose the ability to function. Little Brad was actually a very good bowler and Gabi used the ramp and lost interest very quickly. She was more interested in playing in what little make-up I had in my purse. She was all about the powder and lip gloss. She does not get this from me...anyone who knows me knows I am nothing like a girly girl. I find it very cute that she is into it though and it makes me wonder where she got it. Somethings in that child are me all over, but this...I don't know.

Here are a couple pictures/video of our fun at the bowling alley. I don't know why we don't bowl more, it is really cheap and the kids have lots of fun

And also this week we got some baby gifts for Sam from Mamaw Harris. She made his some blankets and I can't put pictures of all of them on here, but here are a couple of our favorites, which I know Sam will love as well. thanks Mamaw.

Also, just a follow up to my last post, Brad did great for his talk on Sunday. His daddy read the talk, and he held up the poster and Brad said he was totally happy to hold his sign. I printed off coloring book pages with all the actions we were talking about and he colored them and glued them to the poster board (it was a small poster board). He was even excited last night and we kept praying with him that he would be okay. So he did GREAT! Our first talk in primary was a success.

My mom is flying up this week on Wednesday and should get here around midnight or 1am. She is staying 2 1/2 weeks and considering she only gets 3 weeks of vacation at work, this is no small gesture on her part. She has been working late every night and all day on Saturdays to make sure she gets her work done and doesn't leave anyone in a bad spot in her absense while she is here. Thank you mom for always being willing to help. The kids are super excited to have you come up and be here with them and it will be EXTREMELY helpful for me to have you here and to have an adult to talk too for a change.

So lately we have been doing lots to get ready for Sam. As ready as you can ever be for a baby. All the clothes are washed, the bed is ready, there are diapers and wipes, swings, and carriers, bottles and pacifiers waiting for him and 4 people who can't wait to love him are eagerly anticipating his arrival.

Making me Laugh

Brad has to give a talk in primary on Sunday and he is NOT excited about. We started working on it today and he just kept shaking his head, no, no, no...I am not going to do it. We asked him why and he looked at me and said, "Because everyone will be staring at me and I don't like it!" I laughed so hard, and he followed up with, "Mom this is not funny, I don't like it!"

I felt bad for laughing but he was so serious when he said it, I could see the stress and tension in his little face! So who knows what will happen on Sunday. We made a cute little poster type thing with pictures of things he can do as part of a family, but he still isn't intereted in telling the kids in primary about it.

Getting Ready for Sam

The kids and I decided we need to make shirts in preparation of Sam's arrival. Brad and Gabi needed to be able to celebrate being a big brother again for Brad and a big sister for Gabi for the 1st time. This is how they turned out. I think the kids did a great job and it was their idea to put Sam Rocks on the back!

Brad did some doodling on his and then said, "Look mom, this is your boobs because when Sam gets here he will get milk from your boobs" I was like, 'thanks..."

One little funny tidbit, yesterday, Gabi kept hitting me in the boob and I said, Gabi please stop hitting me, would you like me to hit you in the boob? She replied, "I don't have any boobs, see and she patted her shirt where her boobs where"! How funny are these kiddos!