Caroline Rose Reid
Born February 22, 2012 at 6:25 a.m.
7 lbs 7 oz, 20 inches
Mom with the new big brother!
Caroline is spending some time in the NICU now so Paul hasn’t seen her yet. She’s doing great and will probably come home with me tomorrow morning.
More pictures when I have a real computer!
Three years ago, on Friday, February 13, we moved in to our new house!
In some respects, I can’t believe it’s been so long. Didn’t we just get here? Honestly, all the rooms look pretty much the same as when I gave our new house tour. I haven’t changed the furniture or decorations for the living room, family room, front hall, kitchen, or our bedroom since we got our new furniture just after moving in. I’m just not one to rock the boat when I like how things look, I guess.
On the other hand, I also can’t believe it’s only been three years. I love our home! Every time I drive up to my house, I feel so grateful that we were able to move here. I truly am coming home. I can barely remember the previous places we lived and I just love where we have ended up. I never want to leave.
We may not have made lots of decorating changes in the past few years, but since we moved in, we have done a number of big things for the house. We refinished the hardwood floors. We insulated the attic and the basement. We had the roof replaced. We had the cedar siding and trim repainted. We replaced the patio door. We painted the ceiling of the basement in anticipation of more changes down there. And we’ve now painted the smallest bedroom in preparation for a new baby!
There is still lots to do to make our home the most beautiful it can be. But I’m pretty happy with how it is today!
I’ve been pondering home schooling for about a year now, although Ryan mentioned it to me as a possibility long before that.
“Oh, no. I could never do that!” I argued. I’d be too tired, I don’t know enough, it would be stressful.
Then last summer Paul taught himself to read. He’s probably at a second grade level now, at least if the text is large. (If it’s small text or too much on a page, then he still “can’t” read it.) If it was only reading, I may have let it rest. But that was not all.
Using his fingers, he began to put together the rudiments of addition. And because he has an analog clock in his bedroom, he wanted to learn how to read it. He loves putting coins in his piggy bank, and I found myself explaining how each coin has a different value.
In the fall, he started requesting books on different scientific subjects, firstly the planets. From October through December, he wanted to read everything he could find about the planets.
In about November, he began expressing an interest in the human body, probably because my body has been changing with baby growing. He became fascinated by digestion (pee and poop!) and by the heart (I feel my heart beat! I’m alive!) and his bones, which he can feel through his skin.
Around the same time as these science topics began to fascinate him, he began asking about maps. We printed a map to the church, and he wanted to follow it as we drove; he has always been fascinated to watch the GPS cursor on the map in our car navigation system. We’ve learned about map legends, the four directions of the compass, map scales (this is still a bit confusing to him), and some other things.
Because of his fascination and because he seems so advanced in his interests, I thought I’d experiment a little bit with just how interested he is: what can I manage to do with him as a stay-at-home mom? Could I possibly homeschool him?
I bought a handwriting book about ABCs and Numbers. It has a “Kindergarten” label on the cover, so Paul, being the reader he is, decided he was doing “Kindergarten School at Home.” We decided to collect his worksheets in a binder, and thus began Paul’s homeschooling. Now that we moved my office into the same room as Ryan’s office, we also added a space for Paul to be his “work space” or school desk.
We’ve been through two phases of home school now. The first phase lasted about two months, and it was exhausting. Paul wanted to spend every afternoon doing all the different subjects: ABC worksheets, number worksheets, more advanced math concepts (money or time or something new), science, and maps. Every day he wanted some of everything. It was so much fun! He didn’t want to stop for dinner! Needless to say, this was exhausting. We literally spent three or four hours every afternoon doing more and more worksheets. I couldn’t keep up in finding or creating interesting age-appropriate worksheets.
We’ve moved in to a new stage now. I should clarify that before we began “school at home” and before Paul practiced writing on the ABC worksheets, he found writing itself “too hard.” We set up a desk space for him. The numbers and the ABCs in caps and lowercase are on the bulletin board for him to refer too. Now, he does not mind writing, and in fact likes to spend an hour a day writing his own games and worksheets and activities. Some of these are for me to do, others are just for fun for him. He loves it!
A skeleton worksheet Paul made me: I was to label the body parts/bones!
So the new stage is much more balanced between Mom’s worksheets every now and then and Paul’s imaginative writing and creating. We still do some more “formal” school at home.
He loves finding things on maps, and we have been learning how there are seven continents. This month we have particularly been focusing on Antarctica and penguins for science and geography. (The human body is still on his radar, but he’s a little tired of it at the moment. Every few days he has a question and we find pictures in a body book.) In mathematics, we started learning about adding one to a number, but it hasn’t clicked yet that he doesn’t have to start at the beginning (1, 2, 3,…) to add just one more. (He regularly figures out basic adding on his hands, though.) We’re still practicing patterns, and he often makes up his own, which I hear is good for early math skills. He loves to do mazes. We’re learning about “greater than” and “smaller than” maybe once a week, and we practice reading clocks on the hour and half half hour about as frequently. Sometimes we get out the pretend money and set up a store where things cost pennies, nickles, and dimes.
And I’m trying to introduce him to the concept of “history.”
Although he still is intensely interested in learning, we’ve mellowed out to about 30 minutes or 1 hour a day of “school at home” before he’s ready to do his own writing or learning projects.
That’s just perfect for a four year old. He has preschool twice a week still to keep him social. He has gymnastics and swimming lessons to keep him physical. And he’s hard at work at challenging himself to learn and practice in his own imaginary activities as my teacher.
In the state of Illinois, school is legally required for all children beginning at age 7. Home schooling parents are not required to submit grades to the state, but they need to have records of some kind to show children are learning according to the state standards.
Paul, then, has another two years and eight months before I’m required to officially home school him. At this point, this is my plan: for the next two years, I’ll follow his lead. We’ll (probably) do three-day-a-week preschool again next year. The following year, I’ll either send him to kindergarten for 2 hours a day or I’ll join a co-op where he’ll play with kids his age. (I’m leaning toward the co-op, as I imagine that half-day kindergarten with 2 or 2.5 hours a day will not provide much time for socialization.) When he turns seven, and when kids his age are in first grade, I’ll determine just what kind of “curriculum” he needs and we’ll implement it. I suspect he’ll be far above first grade Illinois state standards come that point, if his present interest in learning about the world continues. And if he does slow down, I suspect we’ll be able to get in to a slightly more formal school routine (especially with co-op friends to support us) without too much trouble.
At any rate, I’m really excited to see where “school at home” takes us in the next two years. There are so many possibilities!
This post is evidence that I must update my blog more often! But since I’m now 2.5 weeks away from my due date (!!) I really just feel this urge to get up to date…so I can hopefully soon move on to newborn pictures.
Our family Christmas present this year was a new patio door for our kitchen. We ordered it the first week of November. After more than a few hiccups, it was finally installed the last week or so of January! Here it is!
It does not stick when we try to open it! It’s not rotten on the outside! It doesn’t leak when it rains! It’s a sliding door instead of a swing open door, so there is more room in the kitchen! In general, I think we’ll like it very much. Ryan applied primer to the trim: we still need to paint the trim and figure out curtains at some point before the Western setting sun gets too irritating come this summer.
And then it was my birthday. Birthdays are very much NOT a big deal for me. My friends treated me to a baby shower a few days before, and it was so fun to get excited for a newborn baby GIRL!
Here are some pictures of Paul making a birthday cake for me with his grandma!
And then we ordered a rocking/recliner chair for the baby’s room. We got it the week after my birthday (after a bit of an issue: why did we have so many issues with delivery people in January?!).
That brings us to February. The Young Women of my ward put on a very well done New Beginnings program. If you’re interested, here’s a link to the YouTube video of their skit and a few photos of the Young Women pirates!
And then we come to the fact that I’m now 37.5 weeks pregnant. The count down is on! As of two weekends ago, we had a disaster area in the room formerly known as my “office.” I was in tears bawling because I was less than a month from having a baby but WE DIDN’T HAVE A NURSERY READY! Ryan talked me down off the edge of break down and we got busy painting. I did the walls; Ryan did the trim. I think it turned out very nice! We intended to have a grayish blue, but it turned out far more blue than we anticipated. With the dark brown and light pink accents we’re anticipating for the curtains (Ryan says he has an idea what we should do; good, because I am not a curtain person), it should look just right for our baby girl.
Now that the nursery is set up and I’ve officially reached “full term,” I personally am feeling rather emotional. I am incredibly excited to meet my girl. And I am so bored with being pregnant: feeling miserable, feeling exhausted and in pain, waddling when I try to walk, grimacing when I stand up, having to pee every 60 minutes, and waking up to pain as I try to move in the bed at night. Not to mention not sleeping well at night overall.
That said, I feel panic whenever I realize that I could give birth tonight or tomorrow. I dread spending time in the hospital. I dread the pain of childbirth, while at the same time I dread the fact that I may end up with medication like an epidural or a Cesarean against my wishes. I panic at the thought of having a newborn to bring home this weekend. I dread the lack of privacy in my own home. (Don’t get me wrong: while I”m glad to be near close friends and family and I’m excited to share my baby, I’m still a bit in a panic about how life will go on with visitors. I am a private person!). Paul will lose the one-on-one time we’ve been enjoying so much lately. I’ll be so exhausted from never sleeping. I’ll have 10 or more diapers to change a day. I’ll have a human being depending on my body to provide nourishment every hour or two (for an hour!). I’ll have two children to get ready to go out to whatever we have to go to — even the drop off for preschool is going to be quite the bother, since I’ll have to take Caroline in with me each time! I can’t handle another child yet! I should be so happy to have the time to clean my house right now.
Except I can’t bring myself to do the basics: clean my house (it needs it!), go to the gym to exercise (my last chance!), cook a fantastic creative dinner (I have time!).
So I’m torn between feeling exhausted and bored and overwhelmed and guilty and excited and delighted and just plain tired.
Photo at 37.5 weeks.
Incidentally, I’ve been collecting a few things others should NOT say to a nine-months pregnant woman. Any others you can think of that really got on your nerves?
Something I love to hear:
One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to update this page with family pictures in the same month in which the activities took place, starting with Christmas 2011. I especially want to be better since I posted 50+ pictures a month of newborn Paul and I want Caroline to feel she’s just as special a newborn.
I intended to post these pictures the last week of December. And yet, here I am well in to the new year, waiting for Paul to go to preschool to do so.
At any rate, Christmas was wonderful this year. I baked cookies and fudge to enjoy for a month and to give away to neighbors. Paul was incredibly excited to countdown until Christmas and he enjoyed the activities we did.
Before Christmas, I was able to attend Paul’s preschool holiday party. I haven’t attended any of his parties before so it was fun to be there to help and take pictures, etc. This was a rather chaotic party; I wonder if preschool is always like this? At any rate, they had some carnival games, a few craft projects, and then a gym floor covered in bath sponges that were called “snowballs.” They were encouraged to have a snowball fight. Put 20 kids aged 3 and 4 in a room and tell them to have a snowball fight? Um… Paul reacted much as I would have. He threw a “snowball,” then watched people for a while. Then threw another. It was a bit intense.
Here are some of the best pictures of my little guy. The full album of the preschool is on flickr with a guest pass.
Reindeer bowling
He's proud he knocked some bowling pins down.
We are low-key about presents (I do not want to raise a spoiled or greedy child who says “I want that!” for every toy he sees). I gave him a (plastic) kids microscope, books (which is what he asked for), and an inflatable globe, among some other smaller things. Grandpa Sorenson gave us a book of silly stories that he wrote and Grandma gave him a Thomas the Tank Engine puzzle. Grandma Peggy sent Trio blocks, which along with our Legos, have given me lots of time as Paul slips downstairs to create yet something else. (YES!)
We enjoyed the true spirit of Christmas. At the beginning of the month, he loved selecting some clothes for a “poor boy” from the library’s giving tree and talked for days about the boy who was too poor to get his own clothes. (He was particularly excited because the boy was FOUR just like he is so he knew just what the boy would like.) He loved selecting gifts for his cousins (we do a family gift rotation among my siblings). He loved the excitement of wrapped presents and waiting for them. I don’t think he was tempted to open them, he just loved shaking them and counting them and wondering. He was fascinated by the mystery of magical Santa (although *cough* the reindeer forgot to eat the reindeer food that Paul left on the front step. How’d I know he’d check that FIRST?! even before looking under the tree?).
And most importantly, Christmas was, for our family, about the true meaning of the season, the birth of our Savior. I love having Christmas on Sunday, because then church reinforced the real meaning of the season. I wish we had services every Christmas morning, but of course, that’s not how it works.
The not-so-materialistic goals we have worked well this year: we got to church at 10:30 and someone asked him what he got for Christmas.
“Ugh….I forgot.” he responded. (But he did remember to say that the reindeer forgot to eat the reindeer food he left for them…). So, at any rate, I know Christmas for Paul was not about the presents. Mission accomplished!
We also got to spend the afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa and Paul’s Sorenson cousins. It was lots of fun to watch the kids playing, and it was great to gather with family on a special day.
After Church Christmas Day
31 weeks pregnant
Cousins
Grandpa Reading The Grinch
Merry Christmas!
I look back at the lack of photos and details from my first pregnancy and realize the same thing is happening this time! I’m not keeping up with this, and I’m amazed (but very happy….) to see that there are just 11 (eleven!) more weeks until baby Caroline’s due date.
Of course, most days, eleven weeks seems like an eternity, since I know I will be getting progressively more uncomfortable. Here are some updates as to how I’m doing and how our family is.
First, I have to say it is fantastic that there are so many holidays in the fall. This makes it feel that time is passing more quickly! It’s helping Paul too, because he has milestones to look forward to: his birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.
Paul is very excited to be a big brother. There was a time around his birthday and Halloween when I wasn’t sure what he was thinking — people kept saying “Are you excited to have a little sister?” when he’d get this vacant look in his eyes and not smile. But since then he’s become rather excited. A few stories.
One day near Thanksgiving, we were in the supermarket getting groceries and I couldn’t resist: I had to stop by the little baby clothes. I saw an adorable “Santa” dress for babies: it was bright red velvet with white fur on the collar and sleeves.
“Oh, this is adorable!” I said.
Paul could reach some of the lower shelves and he said, “Look! here’s one in 4T! I can wear this one!”
I explained that he couldn’t wear a dress: those were for girls, like baby Caroline.
Paul promptly responded, “Let’s go find some more adorable clothes for baby Caroline!”
A few days ago now, we were reading a book about a girl with a favorite dress. (I’m currently a round one judge for the Cybils awards, so we’ve been reading all sorts of picture books.) I asked him what he liked about it and he said, “It’s about a girl with a dress, just like baby Caroline will have! So I like it because it’s like baby Caroline.” He had different reasons for liking the book a few months ago when we read it: now it’s all about the “little sister” and “girl” side of things he notices around him, which he’s looking forward to embracing when Caroline joins our family.
He is certainly going to be a great big brother!
As for me, well, here’s a belly shot from when I was 26 weeks (three weeks ago now — that’s how long it’s taken me to post this!)
(Yes, it’s a bit out of focus. Apparently, my husband the photographer has a hard time just taking a picture of a person.)
I am wearing the same shirt (albeit four years older, stained and so forth) that I was wearing when I was 25 weeks pregnant with Paul here. I think I look bigger this time around…. and in the three weeks since I took that picture, I’ve gotten MUCH larger. I’ll take a 32-week picture to compare with my 32-week picture with Paul as well.
So how am I doing? Do you really want to know? If so, keep reading. If not, stop now. I don’t normally go in to health issues on this blog: it just seems so personal. But, this is partly a pregnancy journal too, and I miss not having my thoughts from my first pregnancy to reflect on. I was just too busy moving to Australia and getting settled, I guess.
Two weeks ago, my pelvic bones decided to split apart. I don’t recall this happening in the first pregnancy, and the fact that I pushed for more than 2 hours and Paul’s newborn head was quite smashed together suggests that it was a rather tight squeeze for him. So I’m hoping the fact that all of my pelvic bones are aching and sore will mean that delivery in February will go much quicker and with less difficulty. I was concerned at first, because I didn’t recall so much pelvic pain when I was pregnant with Paul. The doctor did a check and all was well. He did say that, unfortunately, I’ll probably just be in pain for the rest of the pregnancy. Great. So far, it has moderated a bit, so it’s not too bad.
I don’t have Gestational Diabetes or any worries about pre-eclampsia. In fact, my blood pressure is so low I am often dizzy. I can’t exercise by walking on the treadmill or using the elliptical anymore. I can’t even swim one lap of freestyle without stopping; it’s just too exhausting and hard to breathe. So I’m trying to bring myself to the pool a few times a week just to do breast stroke or elementary backstroke very slowly, to stretch, and use the pool weights. I don’t really feel like I’m exercising, but I guess that’s better than nothing.
Baby is a kicker. This may be my fault. With Halloween candy and then Thanksgiving and now Christmas fudge EVERYWHERE around me, I find I’ve been eating tons of sugar. Baby always responds to that. At any rate, from about 8 p.m. until midnight, I struggle to sleep because she’s so busy making herself known. I’m at the place in pregnancy where I’m waking up at night to pee, because of kicks, and because I simply can’t roll over to get comfortable. I’m so tired come morning.
Also, I have low platelet counts, which I’ve had for a few years now, but it is getting worse. Normal counts are above 140 or 150 (thousands). Before pregnancy, I was 100-120, with is not a big deal. Now that I’m pregnant, I’m hovering between 80 and 90. It’s not a big deal until it gets to 20, 30 or 40, which is when I’d need a transfusion during delivery. Also, I can’t have an epidural if I drop into the 70s, but since I’m really wanting to go completely natural again, that won’t be an issue. I’d rather the epidural isn’t even an option!
Speaking of, I’ve had tons of pregnancy dreams that just made me laugh (and others that weren’t so funny). The day after I watched The Business of Being Born (which I really liked; I think it gave a balanced look at the positives and negatives of home birth), I dreamed about my own baby girl’s natural birth, which was great, since it didn’t hurt at all (if only). I dreamt once that I was full term and kept telling Ryan we had to go to the hospital and he kept saying, “I’ll take a shower first” and “I’ll have some dinner first” and “I think I’ll go shave.” Baby ended up being born on the bedroom floor and Ryan (in my dream) was mad because the floor was all gross then and we needed new carpet. I’ve had bad pregnancy dreams: nightmares of surprise early delivery when I’m trying to find a babysitter for Paul and can’t and the baby ends up born on the bathroom floor. And then once I had a dream about my low platelet counts: I was delivering my baby and needed a transfusion so the doctor or nurse was running down the hall calling “Does anyone have A negative blood? Anyone? Anyone?”
Anyway, that’s me. I may look small (people still can’t believe I’m 7 months along!) but there is a full-sized kicking baby inside that makes it hard to walk, hard to sleep, and miserable some days because I’m just SO EXHAUSTED.
I must have a bad memory of pregnancy. But then, last time I was just a lot more positive I think. Here’s what I said at 36 weeks pregnant (which right now seems like a long time from now). Maybe it will get better again?
Decorating for Christmas was not pleasant this year… and I just keep thinking how taking it all down will be even harder because I’ll be that much more pregnant. Nevertheless, Paul loved helping put up the tree. And I do love the lights and the Christmas music. (Guest pass to view this set on Flickr.)
And then we come back to Santa. Do you remember Raisin’s reaction to Santa last year? Well, this season began much the same.
“I don’t like Santa. Santa is grumpy.”
“I don’t want Santa to come.”
“I don’t need any toys.”
So when we headed to the Lake in the Hills tree lighting, I warned him that Santa would be there, but we didn’t have to talk to him. We would leave after we saw the Christmas trees. Surprise! Once he saw Santa, he really wanted to talk to him.
They had this set up for pictures as we waited to talk to Santa. Paul is saying “Merry Christmasssss!” which is why his tongue is sticking out. I only had my phone with me (I wasn’t planning on meeting Santa, remember), so that’s why it’s totally out of focus.
I kept asking Paul what he was going to say to Santa. Would he tell Santa “not to come” like he did last year? He just said, “You’ll have to listen very carefully.”
So what did Paul say?
“What do you want for Christmas?” asked Mrs. Claus.
“Books,” said Paul without hesitation. “Books about books.”
Aw, like mother like child!
He said he
I’m now two weeks late with this. And I feel we’re well in to the Christmas season. But here are some pictures of the cousins having a blast swimming with Grandma on Thanksgiving. Somehow, I didn’t get a picture of the fabulous feast that my Mom created! We visited pretty much all day and Paul loved having so much time with his cousins, Daniela and Jessica (and baby Noah).
Browse six pictures (larger) at Flikr with a guest pass here. To see all the photos we have online, be my friend on flickr (for free). My email on flickr is rebecca[at]reid-family[dot]org.
As you probably know, I hate Halloween. From the extra candy everywhere to the greedy kids to the scary costumes, I just don’t like it. But. Paul loves dressing up. So this was the year to join in all the Halloween fun. We even went trick-or-treating to the five people on the street we kind of know. Paul loved being Winnie-the-Pooh. I think the costume made him look a few years YOUNGER than he is. At any rate, he made a very cute Winnie-the-Pooh. He won an award at the ward party’s costume parade for cutest costume! I did feel a little guilty since his costume cost $4 at Goodwill; other moms actually, you know, made their kids costumes. Ah well.
I was going to wear my Karate Gi to the ward party so I could say I have a “costume.” But when I went to get ready, Paul looked at me in confusion. “But you’re going to be a Mommy for Halloween,” he informed me. “And you’ve been wearing your costume all day.”
Ok, then.
So with out further ado, here’s the cute kid. Larger pictures are on Flickr for friends and family to see and/or download.
At library Halloween story time.
At preschool
Ward Halloween party!
Costume parade
Playing carnival games
Paul with the pumpkin he carved with Daddy
Getting ready to go trick-or-treating
![MG_2150[1]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7165/6556742401_5c0cc30449.jpg)
Paul has been singing the primary songs around the house for months, so I was excited to hear him sing in Sacrament Meeting.The primary chorister said at the practice that he was one of the loudest singers!
Alas, apparently he used up all his singing. He sat and squirmed, and he picked his nose, and he danced around on the stand. But he did just turn four, so he was the youngest up there.
Nevertheless, call me biased, but he’s still very cute ! Here he is singing my favorite song from the program. It’s my favorite because he has this adorable trouble pronouncing some letters that I hope I never forget the sound of.
Remember, “At woke or at pway, in daaaakness or yite, be twoo, be twoo and stand fo-ah the wight!”
And then, just to prove that we do know the words of “Scripture Power,” here that is too.