6 AM Wake-Up

 John and I have a standing breakfast date at 6 in the morning.  Sometimes he sleeps through it and sometimes we both sleep through it (though I never solely sleep through it), but for the most part, we spend a quiet hour or so before the others wake up.  Due to this and because Eric let me know that the blog is the easiest way for him to see pictures, I will post some here.  As you may well be able to deduce due to skills you acquired after watching BBC's "Sherlock", the first few pictures are of our Easter Egg Hunt last week.

 Eric had the great idea to have the three kids start from the three doors of our house.  Will was the big winner, but I loved watching Molly run all over often missing obvious eggs in her rush to get to the next spot.  Notice her totally awesome Lightening McQueen boots?  Really brings the ensemble together, don't you think?

 The kids really did a great job of finding all of the eggs.  There were only a couple that we had to say:  'It's right there!  In front of you!'  Will was ecstatic to discover there was MORE candy hidden in the eggs.  He had quite the sugar high.  It was pretty hilarious to talk to him.  Eric made him ride his bike up and down a hill in front of our house several times to attempt to spend all of that energy.  And Will was totally up for it and understood why he was being asked to do such a thing.

 We also got Dom on his bike, but not to expend energy.  Dom had a pretty nasty accident back in January and has not ridden since.  Easter Sunday was the first time he got back on his bike.  Hopefully, he will regain his confidence soon.  The Tour is only a couple of months away! 

 The next day, Eric headed back to San Antonio and we settled into our usual routine.  We are taking it pretty easy around here:

 Molly is discovering her new wardrobe courtesy of some very kind friends back in Kansas.  She is adorable.

 Dom has switched out his basketball jersey in honor of the playoffs.  I don't know if I can handle many more weeks of these games.  The Thunder have had two overtime games in the last week.  Thank goodness they started at 7!  I made him go to bed last night at the start of the 4th quarter because of Sunday School this morning,  but also because I kept drifting off to sleep sitting upright while holding John...

 Will is also getting into the spirit of the Playoffs.  But, mainly, he wanted to make sure that I got a picture of him as I had taken pictures of the other two.  This kid has no problem speaking up for himself!  And look at that balance!

 For Easter, Molly got a pretty straw hat so that she could match Eric.  Naturally, she refused to wear it while he was in town.  But, the other day, she came out of her room wearing all three of her straw hats.  I asked if she would removed the two Easter bonnets so that I could snap a quick picture of her new hat.  She complied and then immediately put on the other other three hats.  I feel there is literary character who did something similar...Dobby from Harry Potter?

 And then here is John doing his best Dr. Evil impression.  He often has his hand up around his face in the classic thinking pose.  But, he couldn't be further from Dr. Evil.  He is quite a nice little boy who gives me plenty of time to do things as he watches his siblings play. 

 Case in point:

 I said it right after he was born, but he reminds me of Will.  So much so, that Will is almost always what I call him.  And Will does not hesitate to correct me, though always with a little smile on his face.  All of the kids love John, but Will often just sits and watches him with awe.  Yesterday he told me that he couldn't believe how cute John was. 

 A while back, there was an article about kids recreating classic poses from their childhood...I think I'd like this shot to be something my kids recreate.  Though, Molly can pull her nightgown down a little more...

 And here are our youngest three.  Lots of love.

Life with John

 John is 2 weeks today.  In some ways it is hard to believe it has already been 2 weeks, and in others it feels like he has always been here.  We all very quickly got back into the swing of things.  The fact Eric's mom was here for a few days after we came home aided in this greatly.  It also helped that Eric was home for a whole week after we were discharged from the hospital.
  Eric showed Will how to fix an engine...or something like that.  Will ran in to find a car he had built from legos to see if he could recreate what he was seeing.  And I am sure that in his imagination he succeeded.

 We started a family game of Sagaland.  This is a game that starts slowly, but can end quite quickly.  We never quite made it past the slow part.  Though, Molly did try to speed this up by letting everyone know what she found under her trees.

 John found his thumb for a couple of days.  And then he lost it.  Shoot!  Ah well, hopefully he will find it again in the next couple of months.

 John participated in his first homeschooling lesson.  He did quite well.  He sat quietly like a champ.

 We introduced John to 'Jimmy' (which is what we have dubbed his snuggly, Jimmy is a nickname for James Naismith...though Molly prefers to call it his snuggly and will run and get it as soon as she sees John without it)

 The kids all love John and want to be near him.  This picture pretty well captures what it is to be a fourth child.  No quiet darken room for your nap, you get to take a nap right by your playing siblings.  I will on occasion put him in his room for a nap, but for the most part he just sleeps where the action is.  He has been hearing their noise for the last several months anyway, so it may actually be comforting to him.

 John got his first home bath on Saturday night.  He loved it as you can see :).  Eric and I have learned quite a few things since Dom.  For one, you don't need two parents to bathe an infant.  Though, it does help to have someone else photograph the event. 

 Easter morning came bright and early.  This is something where it really helps to have two parents.  Especially when Mass is at 7:30 AM and one of the parents is the sole source of food for one of the children.  Eric bragged he got all four children ready for church...if you don't count that Dom and Will can dress themselves, I made sure that everyone's Easter outfits were laid out the night before, and that I did Molly's hair, he would be absolutely correct. 

 For Easter, Molly received a baby doll of her own.  I named her Layla Penelope in honor of the girl's name Will had picked out and was so devastated over not getting to use.  We call her Penny for short (though Molly just calls her: "my Baby").  It is very sweet to see Molly replicate what she sees me doing.  Last night, she sat next to me and held Penny exactly as I was holding John.  Then when I put John in the bouncy seat, Molly laid Penny at the bottom and put a blanket over her as well. 

 And here is my Baby:

 Eric took some wonderful pictures of John in his Easter get-up.  Perhaps one day soon I will get these on a card and mail them to all of our friends...soon is relative, right?

 And here are all of the handsome Buschelman men.  Or Buschelmen for short. 

One short story before I forget.  Last Saturday we took a walk up to the Liquor Store to buy some Champagne to celebrate Easter.  Seems about right.  Anyway, on our walk, Eric carried John in the Baby Bjorn and the kids played 'Red Light, Green Light' all of the way.  It was all quite idyllic.  Until Eric started yelling about what kind of diaper I had put John in.  I told him I'd used one of the last Huggies from the hospital.  Apparently, it had failed and John had soaked his father.  Upon hearing this, William lectured us on the virtues of using Pampers because they are 3X more absorbent.  Not only was it hilarious to hear our 5 year old quote a commercial  to us (in his words, John could have gone to the bathroom 2 more times before a leak out would have been possible), but it definitely lightened the mood of all involved.  Ever since then, Will has made sure I use the preferable diaper.  Too bad Eric is not here to benefit from his son's vigilance.

Heeeeeeeere's Baby John!

On April 11, 2014 (4/11/14), Eric and I went in for my 40 week appointment.  Despite many carefully thought out plans, it turns out that there really is no way to predict when a baby will make his entrance.  Not only had John not shown up early, he did not seem to have any interest in showing up mildly late.  And truth be told, I was running out of days where I had additional help at home.  I was getting nervous.  

Well, as it turned out, when the doctor scanned me, he noted that my fluids were low.  John's heartbeat was strong, but as I was term, they didn't want to take any chances.  In the doctor's words:  "I don't think you are going anywhere today!" 

We headed to Labor and Delivery where I labored naturally for a while until I stopped progressing (I'd started having contractions every 5 minutes on my own), they put me on a slow pitocin drip for a bit to get things going, which did the trick.  Unfortunately, John's head got stuck on my pelvic bone.  What should have been a very short period of pushing became an hour and a half that ended with the doctor using forceps.  It was a bit scary there at the end, but it all turned out very well and John had perfect Apgar scores.  The pediatricians commented that he was the healthiest baby they had ever run down the hall for.

And now we have him and are thrilled to get to know him.  The kids and Grandma came by the next day to meet their sibling.  And the smiles on everyone's faces were priceless.

 

After spending two nights in the hospital, John and I were discharged and headed home to see how life was going to change.

 To say it wasn't a bit overwhelming when we first entered the house, would be a lie.  But, now that we've been here a day, everything has settled down.  John is sleeping well...for now.  The kids are not constantly wanting to fill me in on all I missed while away.  And Grandma is here cooking.  So, yeah, life is pretty sweet.

 All three are excited to help.  I have to think up things that they can do.  So far, Will has been the biggest help as he ran to get me a trash bag after a particularly messy diaper and took it out to the garbage for me.  Molly sings and bounces John in his bouncy seat.  She is not showing signs of jealousy, which is good.  And seems to be comfortable in her role as an older sister.  Though, she was delighted to get to sit in my lap last night without have a baby in utero kicking at her.

 Then there is Dom.  It doesn't seem like it's been that long since he was our infant.  And, yet, now he is such a wonderful older brother.  He looks at John in awe and I know he is just waiting for that time when he can really help me.  For now, he understands his role is to not make me do more work than I need to and to keep his siblings out of trouble if possible.  Smart kid!

 And John is wonderful.  I cannot express how much joy I feel when I see him.  There was a lot of stress heading into these last few weeks and in a matter of seconds, it was gone.  The minute he was born healthy.  There was no way of knowing even a week ago that Eric would get to be here for the birth.  Or even knowing if anyone would be around to help out.  Though, I know friends would have stepped in.  I'm just grateful that it all worked out better than I could have hoped. 

 And I thought I would add this last picture of me just a couple of days before John was born.  Truth be told, I don't look that much different now.  But, we are happy.  Very, very happy!

Dom and the NCAA tournament

Dom is our sports guy.  He will tell you this as soon as he meets you and warms up to you.  He loves just about all sports.  In fact, when a friend of mine had them at her house and she happened to have a cooking competition on, she said he was completely enthralled with it.  The irony is, that he is the least competitive child I know.  He doesn't care if he wins or loses, he just likes to play.  If it appears he will lose, he just picks someone else to root for.  Generally whoever happens to be in the lead when he realizes his fate.  We are working on him sticking with a team...

So, you can imagine his excitement over the NCAA Tournament.  Arguably the best tournament ever.  We had him fill out a bracket this year online.  And he loved it.  Will did one, too, and they went back and forth switching picks until the day before the tournament started.  The one constant was the KU won it all.  Both boys were pretty upset when they learned that Eric had not picked KU to win it all.  I believe Dom's first words to Eric after this revelations were:  "You're Fired!".  If they knew what it means to divorce, I think they would have been a little concerned about the state of our marriage as they did keep asking me how I felt about the whole situation.

Along with the brackets, Dom also likes to color pictures to support various teams.  While KU is in the tournament, he mainly colors Jayhawks and maybe one picture of the opposing team.  This is the picture we have of last year's tournament:

(He refused to smile, but just kept his mouth slightly ajar because that is was a Jayhawk looks like...note the Michigan page on the right...)
 
  During the Big 12 tournament he made posters and Will got into the spirit as well.  But, Dom much prefers me to print off pictures we find on the internet.  Now, the Jayhawks have a lot of pictures to choose from.  Other schools not so much.  For example, I could not find a single picture for the University of Dayton or Stanford.  Finally, I told Dom he'd just have to make his own.  This is what he came up with:

 

I'd even contacted our sports loving priest in Dayton to see if he knew of any coloring pages.  But, I'm very proud of Dom for coming up with his design and not being overly upset.  I know it disappoints him every time I can't find a picture and he never whines.  He makes a few suggestions of other words for me to google, but eventually comes around to the idea that I've done the best I can and moves on to plan B.

Now the 4 teams who made the Final Four were a different story.  Wisconsin and Florida had loads of pictures.  Surprisingly, Kentucky, not so much.  But I did enlarge a car decal picture I found and then there was this generic basketball picture that Dom was fine with.

UConn was even more pathetic.  Turns out they have changed mascots several times in the last 20 years or so, maybe that has something to do with it?  Or they are just lame...yeah, that is probably it.  So, I made up a poster all by myself.  Again, with a car decal I found and a few pictures of Huskies.

Finally, Dom took it upon himself to recopy the bracket of the tournament.  He'd been filling in the winners diligently on a different one, but last week decided to do it more neatly.  #Handwritingpractice #homeschool.  He even attempted to get the neighbor kids involved.  They weren't quite as enthusiastic.  As this tournament winds down, he is already looking forward to next years.  It's been quite the month. 

Meanwhile, William has discovered Mystery Mosaics.  These are color by letter pictures that are revealed as you color.  Honestly, these are suppose to be mine...but, Will was so intrigued that I quickly let him have a hand at it.  (Don't worry, I ordered myself a book yesterday.  I'm not that self-sacrificing of a mom)  Pretty cool, huh?  Last night he colored a Flamingo.  So look forward to a post in the not so distant future of Will's mosaic display!

39 Weeks and Counting

 For the last few weeks, I have had my family in town to help me as we gear up for John to arrive.  To be honest, I was a little concerned that there wouldn't be enough to do around our house to warrant having people here.  But, it's amazing how luxurious it is to just leave the house without wrangling kids or escape to your room for a quiet nap.  Although, I joke that my kids get spoiled with all of the extra attention from grandparents and aunts, really I'm the one who will have to go through the more painful withdrawal.  Don't worry, I will tell you all about my rehab!

But, anyway, I do want to take this opportunity to write about the weeks that Nana and L'Opa were in town.  Luckily, we were able to give them a little bit warmer weather than they have been experiencing in Kansas.  We even made it to the beach one day.  The kids got wet (Molly just plopped down in the water), but the adults stayed a safer distance from the water.

However, mainly we stuck close to home.   In the above picture, Nana is working on one of her alphabet quilts.  This particular one is for Margaret and she still has Oscar's to start and complete before she will get to John's.  She is coming up on 10 years of constantly having a baby quilt to work on.  Molly and Will were so intrigued.  And maybe she would get these done a little quicker if Will was always there to remind her to not sit idly.   She would have just sat down and he would immediately pounce on her to get to work.   Both Will and Molly would bring out their quilts and compare the colors and were constantly amazed at the similarities.

While all of that was going on, Dom and L'Opa watched every game of the NCAA tournament that they could.  Though we have watched this tournament for a number of years, I am pretty sure I have never watched more games.  Dom is such a huge fan.  He was constantly checking his bracket and filling in the winners.  He also decided his lucky seat was on L'Opa's lap.  He only left it to go shoot hoops in his room or at the end of the KU game a couple of weeks ago to be comforted by his mom.  It has been so fun to watch this year's tournament with him.  Even if it was particularly difficult to get him to do school work for the first two days of the tourney...

 Though, luckily, Nana had to deal with that more than me.  She took over his schooling for the duration of her stay.  He said he liked having her help him more than me because she didn't yell...ahem.  (You know, I wouldn't have to yell so much if he wouldn't say that math was 'boring').   But, it was neat to see them work together.  Particularly when Nana immediately recognized his reader as the same one she used to learn to read.   Some of the characters have changed and they've added a couple of stories, but for the most part it is a very traditional Catholic reader. 

 When Will was showing such an interest in Nana's sewing, I dug out his 'sewing'.  He was quite diligent about getting his yarn around the shape twice.  If he didn't quite make it, he would pull it all out and do it again.  I wish I had taken video of this particular episode as they were both sitting there sewing and he was just talking and talking and talking.  Probably like any sewing circle.  I should have provided some tea and cookies.

Will also bonded with L'Opa over German lessons.  He learned a few key phrases that he will throw out on occasion.  Alles Klar! (OK), Guten Morgen (Good Morning!), and Tschuss! (Bye!) are his favorites.  I even heard him teaching the neighbor girl these phrases and Molly is always a willing student.  L'Opa left behind some phrase sheets and I'm hoping to have Mitzi copy them to poster board, laminate them, and then have them for placemats.  Schaumamoi! (We'll See, in the Bavarian Dialect).

Nana also brought Molly a princess cookbook that the boys loved to look through as well.  They were so intrigued that we found some more boyish cookbooks on Amazon and purchased them as well.  They made several recipes out of them and enjoyed eating all of them.  Nana also made a delicious chocolate cake and several meals for us during her stay.  We were generally exhausted by the end of the day.

 Nana and Mitzi overlapped by one day.  We've stuck close to home for the last few days as it is getting a little harder for me to move around and it has also been so beautiful out that we spend a lot of time outdoors.  In costume...

 This morning we had donuts and it is going to be a wonderful day.  Mitzi taught Molly to do a back flip, I'm going to do laundry, we are going to tidy up the house, head to Mass, and then watch the final four.  Come on Wisconsin!  I will post about Dom's decor tomorrow!