Time Flies

We can hardly believe it, summer is over.  And I haven't updated the blog all summer- sorry! Good thing the only people who actually read this are the grandmas and Aunt Judi.  You all forgive me over and over, so add my summer laziness to the list.:)

Sam just started 8th grade with new side bangs (see above) and some great jeans....all a girl needs to succeed in middle school, it seems.  Jack will be six months old in a few days-just cut his first tooth- and Sophie is practicing very hard for when the time comes to be two!  Her favorite word right now is 'okay' and she uses it as a tool....we ask if she wants this, that or the other thing and when you get to what she wants, she says 'okay' in the sweetest little voice that makes it seem like you are gladly offering her the thing she wants, even if you were just trying to figure it out before agreeing to it.  The little ones are learning so many things so fast right now I swear you can see the gears turning in their heads, it's amazing to be able to watch.   

There is a saying that "One is none, two is twenty" when it comes to children. How true that is. My wonderful brother tells me that when you have to abandon man-to-man defense and go to zone, that's when the challenge begins.  Maybe for him, since he seems to be able to handle six (as of next week, anyway, when I should have a new niece).  But for us, a 1:1.5 ratio of babies to grownups/teenager kicks our butts!  That being said, we are sure having a lot of fun and were loving every minute of the craziness.  

California Dreamin'

John used to fly a lot for business. So much he thought he'd never use up all his frequent flier miles. Then he married me and his family went from one person to five in a couple of years and guess what....all gone. We travelled to California last week for Grandma Connie's wedding and used the last of the miles. Flying with two babies was interesting. It's funny how in everyday places people ooooh and ahhhh over such cute little things, always friendly and helpful. Then you enter an airport. Suddenly those sweet babies make you enemy #1. It's fun to sit on a plane with them and watch the faces of the other passengers entering. After their initial look of horror fades, you can see them calculating in their heads exactly how far away from you they are sitting. Some actually sigh loudly or roll their eyes while avoiding direct eye contact at any cost. Sam pretended she didn't know us. And the kids were great...at least on the way home. The trip there we have tried to block out. Anyway, on the trip home an old man sitting in front of John (who looked like he wasn't the cuddly kid-loving type) stopped us during tandem diaper changes halfway through the flight and told John that he had been watching him walking around the airport with Sophie (she has this cute way of walking around holding only his index finger) and he said he thought it was beautiful how comfortable Sophie was leading her daddy around and that we obviously made her feel safe and secure. He made John blush, so cute. So, in the end it was nice to finish the trip on a good note with a fellow traveller.

We had a great time on 'vacation', weather was in the 100's for the first few days and then lovely as we hit the beach in Carmel. It's much nicer in California at 100 degrees than in Illinois at 80 with our humidity. It was great to spend some time with the family. Coming from small families, it was strange for us to be at a restaurant asking for a table for 17! We sure do miss all of you Adams and don't like being so far away.

For the ceremony Sophie was the youngest flowergirl and was soooo cute. The others walked down the aisle as they should have. Sophie was supposed to hold her 3 year old cousin Emily's hand but wouldn't so we thought surely she'd hold Samantha's hand since she went after the flowegirls. Nope. Finally after Sam went down the aisle Sophie decided it was her turn and began picking up the rose petals one by one and returning them to the lady directing it all at the back of the room. It was too adorable and I was laughing so hard I couldn't move to help. After holding up the bride for a while cousing Britney, the maid of honor, finally grabbed her hand and got her down the entire aisle. Our sweet little girl just loooves to pick things up and put them away! Just like her daddy.

Sam looked beautiful (see the picture on the side) and Jack wore the cutest little seersucker blazer and linen pants, the pics we have so far aren't very good but I'll post them anyway.

Numerology?

Just a quick thought....John and I were talking the other night and realized something interesting. Jack was born on 3/3/08 at 8:38. He weighed 8 lb 13oz, which is exactly 8 ounces heavier than his sister Sophie who was exactly 8 ounces heavier than big sister Sam. He is the 8th grandchild on both sides and our 3rd child. I was (and still am, of course) 38 when I had him. Think we ought to play the lotto?

Nanas

How many of us ever realize how wonderful their mothers are until we're mothers (seveal times over for some of us) ourselves? And who really likes their mother- in-law? I love mine! This is just a shout out to Connie and Kay, both known as Nana in our house at this time. Could we have made it through the last month without you? Perhaps. But for the life of me I don't know how. Thanks for making our home a happier, calmer, cleaner, more organized, more sleep friendly place! From the abundance of fun to the peace of mind you provided, I stand humbled by both of you. You are already missed.

Little Man

It's been a month already...hard to believe! So, here are the details, sorry if they're redundant for some of you! Jack was born March 3rd at 8:38 pm. He was 21 1/2 inches long and 8 pounds 13 ounces. Mom had preeclampsia so Jack came to us via emergency c-section...no labor this time, so that was a pleasant side effect! I (Jana) was fortunate enough to heal with warp speed and Jack came through everything like a little champ. He's growing so fast it amazes us every day. He still has red wavy hair, kind of like a cute little duckling, and his eyes are getting more blue each hour. Gotta love those Adams family blue eyes! We blessed Jack at church today and he was sooooo handsome! That's him in his blessing outfit at the top:)

Sam loves her baby brother and Sophie is adjusting really well. She loves to say "MamaBaby" and come find us whenever she gets up from a nap. Baby in her language sounds like BaBEEEEEEE. So adorable. Her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. So is she. One day she looked like a twelve month old and the next she looked two years. Must be something in the water aroound here. Sophie has enjoyed having each of her grandmas here for weeks and I don't know what I'll do when Mom goes home! I keep teasing John that we need to finish the basement into a Nana apartment our mothers can take turns occupying. With babies this close together I don't think it's altogether unreasonable!

I'll leave you with some pictures as they are probably much more articulate than I am right now...a little sleep deprivation is hard on an old woman like me!

Jack is here!

Jack Cooper Adams was born March 3rd at 8:38 pm. He is a sweet, beautiful and healthy baby. Here are a couple of pics until we can get a real post up in the next couple of days. More details to come!

Sam takes the wheel

Yep, Sophie loves Santa.



Hi, it’s Sam! Welcome to my inaugural posting. This week was the best week of my entire year. My birthday and Christmas literally rolled up into one week. Our family had a very good Christmas this year, John got a BreadMaster which to my extreme surprise he didn’t guess, Mom got a garlic press and a clock made by none other than moi (using dangerous tools in Woodshop, nonetheless), Sophie got some new toys however she proved to be more interested in the wrapping paper than the actual gift, and truth be told she liked the dog’s new yellow bone more than anything, and I got a Wii! A word of warning concerning Wii games, if you are inept at playing racing games with a classic controller then do not attempt to try it with the motion sensitive controller… After we had lazed around for the rest of the day Mom made a delicious meal. The ham alone is enough to feed an army.

The day after Christmas we went to brave the flood of reckless shoppers at Target in an attempt to buy another controller so we could play against each other. We have as of yet been unsuccessful in that quest but we will prevail in the end. On my birthday we went Red Robin for Bonzai burgers…YUM…then to the doctor’s office to check on Jack (my soon to be little brother), he is doing very well and is very cute. I had a slumber party with Talia, Aseneth, Noelle, and Hillary and we stayed up till past one in the morning. We all had a very good week. TTYL!

Side notes from Mom: To our friends in Maine, I can’t tell you how great it is to have a Target 10 minutes away! I remember when it used to be a special quarterly pilgrimage! A big congratulations to the Maroneys on the birth of David…wish I could have been there for this one too! And finally, we are still working on holiday cards this year, just bear with me, noone has been forgotten! Here is a great 4D Ultrasound of little Jack that gives us a sneak peek......

December to remember

Merry almost Christmas everyone! I know it's been ages since our last post, and I apologize. Kind of negates the whole keeping in touch with everyone thing the blog was supposed to solve! We've had a lot on our plates lately...John's been doing a bit of travelling and working hard (that's him in the Santa suit by the way), Sam has been crazy busy with school, piano, babysitting and basketball and last but not least I've been down with pneumonia for the better part of a month! But alas, things are on the upswing and I now have the stamina to live an almost normal life. We're looking forward to Christmas, though our cards will be late (sorry, all) and the house won't be decorated as much as we'd like but everyone gets to be home all week so it will be great just to spend time together. The tree and all the lights are up so we'll call that good anyway.

Sam turns 13 next week.....I can't believe we'll have a teenager. Or...judging from the eye rolling and slammed door I just got from the other room, maybe it's not such a stretch after all.
There will be a big slumber party here next week...makeovers and nail polish, pizza and air hockey..... so if anyone wants to join 8 giggling, junk food laden girls, come on over and I'll trade you places! They only stay up until 4am or so :) I barely remember when that time of day was the end of the day...now it's the beginning! Oh, I feel sooooo old!


I'll have Sam post her own entry next week so check back. Sweet Sophie just woke up so I'll have to cut this a little short. By the way, Happy Birthday to Lorrie, my little sister and to Grandma! We love you!


Here's Sophie's first birthday picture, too.

Brrrr and Birthdays

So it's been a couple of weeks. Right now John is setting the programmable thermostat and trying to get me to agree to cooler temperatures as I'm distracted with the blog. Apparently 68 degrees is darn hot in his book. Little does he know that women have the ability to listen, respond and write at the same time. Nevertheless, 68 degrees it is. At least for an hour or two when we're lucky.

Anyway, Sophie turned one a little over a week ago and we thought we'd better get some pictures up. I got older, too but we don't need to discuss that. John is about to get older, much older than me, and we'll get into that next week.

We had a little party for Sophie with a couple of friends of the family. Grandma Connie came all the way from California to help us celebrate and it was a lot of fun. The whole world is more fun with Connie around! Sophie, being her mother's daughter, didn't hesitate at all before diving into her raspberry buttercream cupcake and she ate the whole thing. The balloons, wrapping paper and boxes were big hits, the presents were enjoyed and our family room now resembles a preschool. And in the end, Sophie's favorite thing is chasing the dog around and around the sofa trying to get her (the dog's) battered old pink frisbee. Sometimes Sophie succeeds and that sweet yellow dog then very gently "chases" the baby who squeals in delight and runs as fast as her short little legs can carry her. So cute.

And last but not least, here's Sam who was a female vampire for Halloween. Since she doesn't like chocolate but spent hours trick or treating with the neighborhood 12 year olds, we have quite the supply here. Thanks for taking one for the team Sam! By the way, Sam won a contest at school and is going to have a great story published in the school paper. Maybe I'll let her write our next blog entry!

Welcome everyone!

Welcome to the inaugural posting from the Adams Family! The Yellow Dog Blog is named for our sweet- and incredibly hairy- Sadie, who is the only member of the family neutral enough to carry the moniker. I'm typing in BLUE today because we just found out that we are having a baby boy on March 6th. Needless to say, we are ecstatic and John can't wait to have some more testosterone in the house...I suppose he's earned it after all these years, regardless of how great he is with all the girls in his life. It should be said, however that in a democracy the boys will never stand a chance. Jana, Sam and Sophie like it that way.

A quick update on Illinois- we are still getting used to the climate after a year and a half. Recently the temperature has fluctuated between 35-90 degrees in any given 36 hour period. Humidity and wind are pretty popular here, but things could be worse. The people here are great and we finally feel settled and blessed to have good friends.

Sophie turns 1 in two days...we can hardly believe time has gone by so quickly. She is such a great baby. Really, we're not just proud parents, and those of you who know us well know we'd tell you if things were less than ideal! She walks like Frankenstein, but very fast. She is so sweet and funny and cute...always smiling and saying dada, baba, tickle tickle tickle, good good good, sissy or almost anything besides mama. Okay, I guess there's the fault. I have faith that one day she'll come out with it though. Sophie loves her daddy more than anything on the planet, besides Sadie anyway. We are all gaga over her, in case you couldn't tell.

Sam is doing great in 7th grade. She's taking piano and babysitting and staying very busy. She's finally slowing down growing at 5'8", we'll see if she can look mom in the eye in the near future but she's still a few inches away much to her chagrin. Sam is a great help with Sophie, I love watching them interact. It's amazing to watch her grow into a teenager...the other day I realized I'd be sending Sam to college and Sophie to kindergarten at the same time....funny how things turn out like that.

That's all for now, we'll keep updating with more posts and pictures so check this out every now and again!