The weather has been gorgeous here (when it isn’t raining!) and the weekend was perfect, so in addition to our camping, we also went hiking! It was quite an outdoorsy day!
A family shot (look at Riley’s little face, LOL!)
McKenna and Finn on a bench
Playing it cool
The daddy’s and their baby’s
Running and Climbing…..what boys do best
And Finn takes a “Time-Out” in the woods. Yep, just because we’re out and about doesn’t mean you don’t get put in time-out!
Todd finally got to fulfill one of his lifelong dreams….backyard camping with his children! I’ll admit, I thought the idea was a little aggressive for a 2 year old, but it was a HUGE success! We started the day with a trip to pick up our food (beer) supplies, then we pulled out all of the gear from storage and showed Finn what everything was! The Brimmer family joined us in the festivities!
Gear is out, chairs are set up
Getting the fire started
Time to set up the tents……The kids were so excited they kept trying to climb in and on them, seriously hindering the process!
Finally!
Riley, not too excited
Roasting hot dogs on an open flame
We went on a snipe hunt! Finn is wearing a potholder on his arm….because he heard that snipes bite! LOL!
Time for some premade smore’s…..we weren’t brave enough to try real smores just yet!
And then time for a bear hunt! This was the longest, craziest version of a bear hunt ever!
Then it was time for PJ’s and story time including “Curious George Goes Camping”
While Todd, Finn, Chad and McKenna camped outside, momma and Riley and Christy and Kara, slept snug in our beds inside! About an hour after they zipped up their tents I went out to check on them and it was silent! They had actually fallen asleep! And so had the daddy’s, whose master plan was to wait until the kiddos fell asleep so they could sneak out and drink some more beer by the fire. Which they did eventually do, after a little nap! ;)
And I am still in shock they two 2 year olds slept in tents all night long! Here’s the gang the next morning!
Looking forward to many more camping outings! Maybe we’ll get brave enough to hit the real woods next time?!?!
Oh and here is a video of the snipe hunt (warning: its dark for most of it, but you can hear them calling for the snipe, too cute)
So, Finn has been not a great napper lately. It is a struggle. And it happened over night. He used to just lay down and go right to sleep without a peep. I have gotten one or two days in the last month where he has done that, but the majority of the days, we struggle. And sometimes he just has quiet time playing in his room and not napping at all. Like yesterday. I was sitting next to the monitor the entire time he was in his room and I didn’t hear a single sound. When I went in to get him (an hour after I had last checked on him) I found him standing on a stool, naked from the waist down looking out the window with a puddle of pee on the floor (of which he informed me that he went pee-pee on the floor) and all of the things from his bed were on the table and all of the items from the floor and the closet were in his bed. I didn’t hear a thing. He is a ninja.
I didn’t even know how to respond. So I just put a new diaper on him, put his pants back on and bundled him and Riley up and took them for a walk. About 5 minutes into the walk, Finn passed out cold:
He napped in the stroller while we walked and even after we got home. He napped for an hour. Stinker.
A nearby neighborhood, Cabbagetown, has this awesome festival every year called the Chomp N Stomp. It is a chili cook-off, it is a madhouse and it is AWESOME. We entered in with our own chili with some friends two years ago and had a blast. We had a lot of fun trying so many chilis! And they have one of the coolest playgrounds there which I plan to take Finn back to (IF IT EVER STOPS RAINING) and we’ll take some pics of this cool digger thing they have. Anyway, the only picture I took of the day is this:
A free clown nose came with out tasting of Clown Bite Chili.
Finn informed he was going to feed grandma (bear). He climbed up into my chair, grabbed the boppy, pulled up his shirt and put grandma (bear) in the proper feeding position. Oh my.
A little bit of background story: Since Finn was breech I had to have a c-section. But since there weren’t any other reasons as to why I needed to have a c-section, my doctor thought I was a good candidate for a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). This was REALLY important to me. I didn’t experience any labor with Finn and so I was really excited to be able to have the opportunity with Riley. There were risks involved though and due to those risks I was not able to be induced so I would have to go into labor on my own. My doctor would only let me go one week past my due date before scheduling an automatic c-section. At 37 weeks I was 1cm dilated and 80% effaced, which meant good progress. I was doing everything in my power that I could to induce labor. But, it just didn’t happen and a scheduled c-section for 2-4-09 (Todd’s 35th birthday!) was what we were set for.
I woke up at 2:30am with contractions and cramping and got up out of bed and started pacing and lunging around the house, still trying to go into labor on my own. Finally at 4am, nothing was happening so back to bed I went. We had to be at the hospital at 8am and we woke up at 645, got ready, woke up Finn and dropped him off at daycare and headed to the hospital. I was pretty much an emotional wreck all morning, with stupid crying and being a baby about not getting my VBAC. Got to the hospital, sat in waiting room while they got us all registered and what not and I was actually in a pissy mood. Then the nurse came out and started to lead us back to the pre-op room.....and I LOST it, completely bawling as we’re walking down the hallway, the nurse is all "what the hell is wrong?" (but obviously nicer than that) and Todd had to explain everything to her. So we get to pre-op room and they start prepping me. My doctor came in and said, “all right, let's check you one last time to see if you've got anything going on”. And can you believe, after all that progress I had made 3 WEEKS before....I had ZERO progress! So, evidently deuce was never coming out on his own, so then and only then did I start to feel better about going in after him.
So we're sitting there and I look over at Todd and I ask him, “one last chance, what do you think it is?” And he says "I still think its a girl" and I say "well I've been having some dreams the last couple of nights that its a boy, so I'm going to say boy". So epidural is put in, a team of people come in and introduce themselves as I'm shaking uncontrollably from the epidural and off we go to the OR. More prepping ensues, Todd is sitting up at my head and we've got the curtain up in front of my face and then they begin. and damn, it took longer than Finn's c-section and they were pushing on my upper abdomen so hard I was actually yelling out, it felt like they were crushing me. This time I didn't feel like I was going to throw up like I did with Finn. But, Riley also didn't want to come out and they had to use the suction thing on his head to help the process along. Evidently he was really comfortable in there!
But then...Finally......they pulled him out and it was Todd who got to make the announcement and it went like this:
Todd: Ohhhh, we have a BOY!
Me: SHUT UP!
Todd: Nope, its a boy.....Dr. Dawson, it's a boy right?
Me: SHUT UP! awwww, sob sob sob sob, YAY!!!!! Lemme see him!!
So Todd had been snapping away pictures the whole time and he finally showed me the first picture of him after they pulled him out, all slimy and gross and I could tell right away that he was HUGE! I couldn't wait to get into the recovery room to hear the stats and hold my big baby boy!
So that's our story pretty much! I'm blessed with a household of big ole boys that are going to eat me out of house and home but take care of me forever! YAY!!!
Riley David Lakes: 10:31am, 8 pounds 9 ounces and 21 3/4 inches long!
We officially learned that Finn was breech at 36 weeks. I had a good inclination all along that he was because I had a very hard “knot” sticking out of my upper right side for a good while before that point. I was sure it was his head because it was so hard and just the placement of it, I really didn’t think it could be his butt. So at 36 weeks they did an ultrasound and determined that he was breech. Two days later we checked into the hospital to try to manually turn him, a procedure called an external cephalic version. The procedure was unsuccessful. Finn started to move but then he stopped and put his foot down and so then he was transverse and footling breech meaning he was sideways with his feet down. So our c-section was scheduled for 39 weeks and 3 days.
The day of the birth was really weird to wake up knowing we were headed to the hospital to have a baby! I could barely walk myself into the hospital! Once we got in they hooked me up to monitors, checked the little guy again to verify he was in fact still breech, hooked up an IV, prepped me and then the anesthesiologist came in to hook me up to the epidural. Suddenly I got really nervous and scared and started shaking, turns out I was kind of nervous of being paralyzed by the epidural or that it would hurt having something poking me in the spine. Todd was awesome and held my hands through the whole thing which didn’t take as long as I imagined it would and the anesthesiologist was wonderful walking me through every single step and what it would feel like. I was numb and started getting really emotional with tears streaming down my face and was so nervous as they wheeled me down to the operating room.
Once in, they pulled up the drape so I couldn’t see anything and they started working. I couldn’t feel very much, just some pulling and tugging, which was very weird! Todd was there and he could either sit on a stool next to my head or stand up to look over the curtain to watch. He mostly watched everything and told me what was going on. We have some CRAZY pictures of the giant hole in my belly and of them pulling Finn out! Finn was footling breech and transverse which means he was stretched out from end to end instead of being butt first and balled up. So when they opened the uterus his feet popped right out and then they worked to pull the rest of him out. His head somehow though was stuck and would not come out so they had to make the incision slightly larger. Todd said it was really weird watching them try to get his head out! But out the little man came, and shortly after I could hear him cry. Todd went over to where they were cleaning him off and took a thousand pictures of everything and told me everything that was going on. Evidently he was peeing all over the place!
At this point I was starting to feel really nauseous as they were trying to clean everything out and put it all back together. The anesthesiologist gave me something for the nausea but I was laying there trying my hardest not to vomit and had my head facing away from where Todd was originally standing. I heard my name, turned my head and that’s when I saw the little man for the first time! All wrapped up and staring back at me! Suddenly my nausea went completely away and it was the last thing on my mind! I was of course bawling, as was Todd. It was actually one of the doctors who was holding him for me to look at him and then he handed Finn to Todd and took a bunch of pictures for us of Todd holding him and then of the three of us, which was so sweet and wonderful! I love that man whoever he was! Then they had to take Finn to the recovery room to weigh him and do all kinds of things to him and so Todd went with him while I was getting fixed up. At this point I started to get REALLY sleepy and all I wanted to do was shut my eyes and sleep which I think I did for a little bit.
Once in the recovery room, I got to see the little man again and they told me his stats but that he also had low blood sugar and so they needed to try to feed him a bottle right away to get that back up to where it needed to be. I was laying right there as they were doing everything so I was able to watch. He wouldn’t however latch on to the bottle, had no suck instinct so it wasn’t going down and getting into him and so they said they would have to take him to the nursery for a while to keep working with him and that if in an hour his levels weren’t up they would have to tube feed him. But while they were filling out some paper work before they took him to the nursery, I got to hold him. It was probably for about 15 minutes and his eyes were wide open the whole time just staring back at me! It was the best thing in the whole wide world! So even though I was originally sad about not being able to hold him to my chest right after he was born being all slimy and everything, it really didn’t matter anymore at that point!
After some time in the recovery room they took me up to our hospital room and our families joined us and then they got to go down to the nursery to see Finn! Finn ended up learning to suck and didn’t have to be tube fed and his levels went back up and he was wheeled into our room about 10 minutes after the grandparents left to go get lunch. So the three of us got to get to know each other all alone for a few hours! I can’t even tell you how much I love this little man, we cannot stop staring at him and holding him and just gushing all over him, it is ridiculous!
Finnegan Timothy Lakes: 8:52am, 7 pounds 10 ounces and 21 inches long!
So I was chatting with a friend who is about to give birth and she was asking for any random advice (after I was already giving some, unsolicited) and I was trying to think of things and then I remembered that right after Finn was born I had typed up this “random update” document of all of the really random things that were happening to my body after giving birth as well as just how I was feeling about things in general.
So I set off searching through my files to find said document and in the process found it, found another document that a friend had sent to me about her experience and then I stumbled upon Finn’s birth story! Reading through it gave me chills! And then I thought….where is Riley’s birth story?
So then I searched the blog of course since I keep “everything” documented on the blog. But, it was nowhere to be found. And I went on a mad search through my files, my thumb drive, my external hard drive, everything and could.not.find.it. But I remembered typing one up and putting it on a local mommy group website that I have been on for years. But the site has an awful search functionality (if you can even use the word functional to describe its disfunctionality).
So then I got very sad. And I made a post on the site to my momma friends saying how I was sad and that I had lost it forever. But….I have the best momma friends because they started to help me find it! And one such friend did! Karen is the best and totally understood how precious that story is to have! THANK YOU KAREN!
I wanted to share all of this random background info because I’m going to post the boys birth stories here next and I figured some would think it was completely random and strange that 27 months and 9 months after giving birth to them that I would be sharing their birth stories!
This was Finn’s first pumpkin carving. He was really excited to do this….but too apprehensive to stick his hand inside and touch the goo!
Daddy threw momma under the bus “Hey momma, why don’t you help draw the face” I know I’ve mentioned before that neither of us are artistic…thanks daddy
Helping cut the face
A work in progress
Trying so hard
The finished product
Whoa, time is FLYING! I know, I know, I say that all the time, but it is just seriously blowing my mind. Riley is 9 months old! We took him in today for his 9 month check up where he received his second flu vaccine, an H1N1 vaccine and a finger prick to check anemia and lead levels. With his first shot he just got a concerned look on his face, and then on the second he let out the wail! Didn’t last long though and once I picked him up he was fine. And then we moved onto the finger prick where he didn’t even flinch! He just sat and gave the blood draw nurse the stare down. But the doctor said that he was perfect!
And thanks to Windows Live Writer, I can finally add this geeky table that I have been dying to add to his monthly updates with his growth stats!!!
| Age | Weight | % | Height | % | Head | % |
| Birth | 8lbs 9oz | 21.75” | ||||
| 1 week | 8lbs 1oz | |||||
| 1 month | 11lbs 3oz | 90th | 23'” | 90th | 15.25” | 50th |
| 2 months | 12lbs 14oz | 90th | 25” | 100th | 15.75 | 50th |
| 4 months | 15lbs 14oz | 75th | 27” | 100th | 16.5” | 50th |
| 6 months | 17lbs 9oz | 75th | 28.25” | 100th | 17” | 50th |
| 9 months | 21lbs 3oz | 75th | 30.25” | 95th | 17.75” | 40th |
1) He is crawling! He started crawling on 10/22/09 at 8.5 months old! He still has a slow deliberate crawl at this point, which just makes it cuter. As Finn and I move through the house from room to room he will crawl after us. I’ve got to try to get it on camera, but I just LOVE watching it. It’s like he’s saying “Wait for me!”. He also loves to stand. He has always had really strong legs and has loved to stand, but now he can pull himself up to standing and even cruise around his music table a little.
2) He got his first tooth this month! And it looks like he’s about to get two more! Unlike Finn though, it has definitely bothered him. Finn never had any teething issues (until he got his molars) he would just wake up one day with a new tooth. Riley….well….not so much……these things are definitely hurting him and bothering him and making him cranky and not sleeping very well. Poor little dude!
3) He is 100% breastfed! We’ve reached a little milestone with Riley that we never got to with Finn. With Finn my supply started to take a hit around the 6 month mark and that is when we introduced formula and by the end of the 9th month he was completely formula fed. So right now, my supply is awesome (knock on wood) and he will be formula free for at least another month!
4) He has the most gorgeous chocolate brown eyes. Its still surprising to me how dark they are, especially in comparison to blue eyed Finn.
5) “Ohhh, he’s juicy!” The grocery store check out lady said Riley was Juicy, just makes me laugh because he totally is! Not to mention….he has the best Squeezable Cheeks! People have started squeezing his cheeks, even perfect strangers! I’m just waiting for him to say “Whatchyou Talkin Bout Willis?”. It surprises me that he is “only” 75th percentile for his weight given how much chubb he has and how tall he is, evidently there are much chubbier babies!
6) Baby Bam Bam! The church nursery lady has started calling him baby bam bam because he lifted up the baby swing with one hand. While this may be a bit of an exaggeration, I have seen similar feats of strength. He is VERY strong! I’m definitely going to be in trouble when he becomes a toddler and I have to manhandle him. I’m going to need to get a personal trainer.
7) He’s Waxy! I have never, not even once, cleaned Finn’s ears. Riley on the other hand has wax just falling out of his ears in big clumps! It’s the craziest thing! I asked the doctor about it and she said it was fine, nothing is clogged in there and looks “normal” but that I’ll just have to keep cleaning them out.
8) He loves to play ball! If you pick up a ball he will sit down on his bottom and turn his body to face you and squeal in delight until you throw him the ball! He’ll even catch it and throw it back. He has some serious hand coordination, its truly amazing! I think we have a ball player on our hands!
9) He’s loud! I found the post where I announced his birth here on the blog and think it is funny that I mentioned then how loud he is. Even right from when he was born, Todd and I looked at each other and said “wow, he is loud”! And he is truly owning it. I am not looking forward to his toddler tantrums!
And one more of the cutie patootie!
I present to you The Lakes Brothers Circus: Ringmaster Daddy, Finn the Fearless Lion and his Ring of Fire, Strong Man Riley with his 1K lb barbells and Fortune Teller Mommy (click on any of the pictures for a larger view)
We had a big party at our house before Trick or Treating time with all of our friends from the neighborhood.
Ladybug Claire and Hippie Libbie
Lobster Caden
Sophie in Wonderland
Progressive vs. Geico
Queen of Hearts Kelly, Momma Bee Mary Helen and baby bee Addison and The Good Witch Sara
Go Redskins Sara
Riley is watching you….
Dr. Morami Tulov
Butterfly Ellie
Libbie digs the chicken nuggets
Hannah the ballerina rides her pony
Fireman Everett
Finn…ohhh Finn….here he is with his “juice box” – addicted
and with all that remains of the white chocolate ghosts on a stick…..lord only knows how many of these he ate at the party, but he ate at least 3……
Seriously hilarious
Don’t mind if I do
I forgot to add this picture in with the other boo at the zoo pictures and I think it looks like he’s flying and it makes me laugh.
I love Halloween!
And Finn’s festive pumpkin socks (Riley is wearing candy corn socks but I couldn’t get a picture)
We made it back to Boo At the Zoo this year and met up with Maggie and new baby Piper! Our costumes are still not completely done, so we improvised a little bit. Finn the Lion, with his Lion Tamer Daddy, Super Riley and Doctor Mom.
I’d say he was dancing with Yogi Bear but really he just stood and stared at him the entire time.
and eventually gave him a hug
and Monkey George!
The Lion Rides the Giraffe
Kitty Piper, Foofa Maggie, Super Riley and Finn the Lion
Finn’s new favorite show is Sid the Science Kid. Our neighbors had a little microphone sitting out on their front porch last week and Finn was SO excited. So I put “microphone” on Finn’s Christmas list. Well last week we went to our first music class with Little Songbirds (which we LOVED by the way) which is held in Hoopla in Decatur which is a super cute shop….and lo and behold there was a microphone! It was only $1.50 and doesn’t have sound or music or anything but I thought he’d like it. Which he does. Although he keeps telling me it is broken because it does not play music. le sigh. But here’s a couple of pictures of him enjoying it. And yes, that is THE Tonka shirt.
This year we went back to Berry Patch Farms to check out the pumpkins, the hay ride, the petting zoo, the face painting, the boiled peanuts and the blueberry pies! We had taken Finn there two years ago when he was just 3 months old and we went with his girlfriend Maggie. This year Miss Maggie got sick at the last minute but we still went with his other girlfriend Miss McKenna, and Riley’s girlfriend Miss Kara! I’ve got a thousand cute pictures and I’ll try to keep it to a minimum here but there’s still just too many I have to share!
Yes, we go to the zoo alot. But every time there is some new cute FUN experience, and our trip last week was no exception!
We evidently went on field trip day and O.M.G. there were ALOT of kids there.
Finn watching the “mingos” with the big kids.
So I know I’ve mentioned before how much Finn loves to crank the wheels on the souvenir coin machines…..here’s another picture of him at work. On this trip though, someone else actually wanted a souvenir coin and Finn sat watching in complete amazement…..and thank you to that kind soul who also let him touch the coin when it came out. Made.his.day.
Elephants jogging momma!
So…..a few weeks ago when we went to the zoo, Finn stuck his hand in one of the candy machines and found a quarter, he pulled it out shouting “money momma, money!” so excited. So I let him keep it and he put it in his pocket (which by the way is his new thing and is seriously cute as can be….but also might be why we had to replace our washer a couple of weeks ago….I’m going to need to start checking his pockets before washing anything!). And now, every time that we go he checks all the machines. and every single time he has found money! Seriously! What are the odds? But every time he puts it in his pocket and we put it in his piggy bank when we get home. Here he is digging for gold
On this trip, we snuck up on a gorilla taking a break from everyone else, sitting all alone on the very edge and super close to us and we were the only ones over there! He kept looking back over his shoulder at us as we were talking about him. I mean we were saying nice things, but I think he wanted some alone time.
But he was quickly joined by two more friends
and then when we went into the gorilla house, which is our usual snack time spot, three of the baby gorillas were playing right in front of, and on the glass! They were jumping all over the place, all over each other, jumping on the glass, pounding on the glass and there were SO many kids in there shrieking the whole time, it was priceless, adorable and so much FUN! I couldn’t really get a picture though since there were so many kids and I had to also keep a handle on my own two!
Oh we love the lions! They were super loud this particular morning. I love to listen to them roar!
So in preparation for the ‘Lakes Halloween Spooktacular’ party, Finn and I made some ghosts!
Our supplies
Finn helping with the “hair” as he called it
and the finished project
We love the aquarium! We had an annual pass last year and we kind of debated on whether or not to renew again this year because its annoying to have to pay for parking, but we love the aquarium, and so does Finn and with winter coming its great to have an indoor activity and the dolphin exhibit should be opening soon!!! So I took the boys down last week because it was cold and raining.
Riley was so excited he rested up in the car ride there
And, as we know, Finn liked random things. His favorite thing at the aquarium is this FUN little kid sized tunnel. He will literally run around and around and around and around and around in this thing for a good hour if I let him.
Here’s the tunnel
Finn going in
Finn inside
Finn coming out
And going back to the entrance to run through again…and again…
He’s a tree-hugger
And Depot!!! Every time we go, we see Depot. Finn LOVES Depot. Until recently Finn had never seen the movie Finding Nemo, but when he did, he thought that Nemo was Depot and he calls all orange colored fish Depot, which I’m sure makes Bernie Marcus one happy man!
