Life Lately ... James.

Lately, our life has been about James (or Jimmy, we use both names for him).

We have settled into what I refer to as our "new normal."  That is, adapting to early morning drop-offs for school, lunch-time pick-ups for Sophia, dance classes for both girls and any other activities in between.  We also celebrated Sophia's 5th birthday last weekend with a "friend party" on Saturday and a "family party" on Sunday.

The older kids absolutely LOVE their new sibling -- not a moment of jealousy or frustration when I am occupied with feeding him.  They adore looking at him, holding him and even checking his diaper to see if he needs to be changed ("Mom ...!  Jimmy's diaper has a blue line on it!  He's wet!"). 

Without further ado ... our life lately:

After bath snuggles:

I just love the way Samantha looks at him:

Jack enjoys sharing his toys with his little brother; I often find many stuffed animals in his bed at any given time of the day.

The first thing that Samantha asks when she arrives home from school is if she can hold James.

And Jack relishes his mornings home with just me and "the boys."

Jimmy's first bath -- a sponge bath in the kitchen, with all of the kids looking on:

His umbilical cord fell off when he was exactly 2 weeks old, but we are continuing with sponge baths for the time-being.  So much easier (and quicker) and this momma enjoys that in the evening when she is feeling a bit tired.

Like all of my little babies, James like to sleep with his hands up by his head:

James isn't really a big fan of his pacifier (none of my kids ever were), but we try once in a while to see if it soothes him for a bit:

James met his namesake (my dad) for the first time when he was 4 days old.  My dad was so proud of him.

Jack is never too far away from his little brother at any given time.  I just love the tenderness that he has for him.  I hope that they become the very best of friends.

I asked Steve to hold onto James for a little bit one night while I prepared for his sponge bath.  Within minutes, I came back into the room to find this ... Be still my heart.

Introducing ...

James Michael Lapinski was born on February 4, 2016 at 3:50 pm via scheduled caesarian section.  He weighed 8 lbs. 7 oz. and was 21" long.  He came out screaming and holding tightly to my doctor's finger.  He was perfectly pink and received a RARE 10 and 10 on his Apgar scores.  (Later, the nurse commented that that was the first time that she ever gave perfect scores in her 15 years of experience; my doctor also went in his records and found only 2 babies -- out of the 6000 that he has delivered -- that received perfect scores).  Wow, that is really remarkable.

The next day, Steve brought the kids up to the hospital to meet their little brother.  It was a special day because Steve picked Sam up before lunch at school and let her miss her afternoon classes ...  My mom was also able to come with them, despite having her cast on her foot from previous foot surgery.

This has always been my most memorable moment -- watching my children meet their new sibling for the first time.  I could look at the pictures over and over again and never tire of it.  It's an incredible experience that words can't begin to cover.

Taking it all in ...

Jack couldn't believe how "tiny" he was.

Of course, they all wanted to take turns holding their little brother almost immediately.  The look on Jack's face just melts my heart.  He is so proud of James.

These two are going to be best friends.  I just know it.



Jack barely tore his eyes away from him for a quick pose for the camera.

The biggest sister and the littlest brother.

Some say that James looks the most like Sophia did when she was a baby; the same blonde hair, her eyes and chin.  Only time will tell if we have another blue-eyed baby to add to our brood.

Look at those long toes hanging out of the blanket.  James has the longest fingers and toes ever.

James and I were discharged two days later (this momma doesn't like to stay in the hospital any longer than absolutely necessary!) and the kids were anxious to see us when we arrived home.  Luckily for us, James doesn't seem to mind the kids up in his face, as this is a common occurrence at any given moment of the day. 

And I am relishing it, thankful that he has fit just perfectly into our lives.  He completes our family.

Color Cards

When Samantha was younger, we made flashcards together to help her practice her color words -- red, orange, yellow, etc.  She colored on the front of a card using a crayon and then I put the name of the color on the back. 

We used them over and over again.  And then some.

This week, I decided to do something similar with Jack.  But, I wanted to include Sophia, as well, because she was home from school that day (she only attends preschool four mornings a week).  So, I got out some flashcards and random items that we could glue/stick on the front of the card -- that was Jack's job. 


Gluing:

Making sure that the colors adhered firmly to the flashcards:

Then, Sophia's job was to write the name of the color on the back -- with me spelling the words, of course.

Holding up one of her favorite colors:

And then, if we're keeping it real here ... there was a toddler meltdown.  I'm sure that it was over something insignificant; like, he wanted to be the one to set out all of the cards and Sophia beat him to it.

Jack's role in the game is to have me ask him for a particular color and for him to find it and pass it along to me.  I have to admit that I am pretty impressed with his skills already ... just one day later.

Sophia, on the other hand, has it a little tougher.  She has to turn all of the cards over and recognize the names of color words by sight.  She does pretty well with most of the words ... a couple confuse her ... but it is a wonderful opportunity to work on sounding out words and recognizing blends of letters together.

Beginning of the Week Randoms

Samantha received a Shopkins gingerbread house for her birthday -- Shopkins are all the rage right now (small, collectible, plastic items), so Steve helped the girls construct it before Christmas and then they decorated it.

 

It should be noted that I employed the engineer of the family for this task, as my gingerbread house that I helped the girls with last year was not very sturdy.  

 

The finished product:

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During the gingerbread house project, Jack played on the computer for a bit.  Yes, this little man knows how to navigate a computer mouse with ease.

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Speaking of gingerbread houses, we stopped at Wendy's for lunch one day and the nice lady behind the counter gave the kids these cardboard gingerbread houses to construct at home.  I had little faith that they would be anything "substantial," but I was clearly wrong.  We put them together one night after baths and then decorated them with stickers.  What a fun family activity!

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Christmas Catherine, our Elf on the Shelf, was busy this year. 

She started making snowflakes out of coffee filters late one night and then left a note asking the kids if they would help her make some more.

Oh, yes.  They definitely wanted to help!

Showing off their creations on the back door:

Christmas Catherine got into some leftover popcorn that the kids had left out on the counter and strung some of it together to decorate one of the Christmas trees that was part of a decoration in the living room.

On another night, while wearing her pajamas, she got tangled up in some lights.

One morning, the kids found her sitting on the coffee table with a note asking if they would help her put together a puzzle.

When it was all put together, it read: "Lapinski Family, I'm Back!  ~ Catherine."

Jack found her early one morning, hiding in the Christmas tree.

She had stolen a camo hankerchief from Steve's dresser drawer and covered her face in camo face-paint.  Apparently, the camo wasn't working that well ... since Jack found her right away!

I told the girls that we would need to make some cookies for Santa the next day, and Christmas Catherine must have heard them talking when they wondered out loud what Santa's favorite kinds of cookies were. 

Luckily, Santa's "favorite" cookies just happened to be the ones that I had already planned to make!

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That day, the kids helped me make the cookies:

And then the next afternoon, I surprised Samantha and Sophia by letting them skip their naps so that they could help frost the cookies.

Many times over the course of the afternoon, I found myself reminding Sophia that "less is more" when it comes to sprinkles, but that girl will ALWAYS be my "queen of embellishments."  In her mind, you can never have too much sparkle -- whether that be glitter or sprinkles. 

(We did leave a few cookies without frosting and sprinkles for those people that don't share the same motto in life that Sophia does).

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After the Christmas Play-Date, the kids took a front row seat on the coffee table to finish watching The Grinch movie.  (The coffee table had been moved earlier to make room for all of the friends that we had invited over).

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All I have to say is "bake" and Sophia is right there, ready to go.  I never have to ask her twice.

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We consumed a lot of hot chocolate this season.  We even learned that Jack likes it too!

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Jack received a sleeping bag for Christmas this year so the kids were excited to have a movie and popcorn night on the living room floor.  Jack isn't quite ready to sit through a full movie yet (his attention span is not that well-perfected), but he did pretty well.