Syphr turned ONE MONTH OLD!

I was a little concerned when I realized I already had an over-dramatic 8 year old and a hyper-sensitive 2 year old that Syphr would end up being hyper-active. So far he's gained the new title - mellow.

He has his moments where he just fusses, and is a little particular when it comes to how he wants to be held and the quantity of kisses allowed per day, but he's such a great baby. And getting so big! He put himself on a feeding schedule the day he was born and does not stray from it. It makes life for the rest of us so much easier.
I love that all the loose skin Syphr was born with is now slowly filling with fat. He's also sprouting chin after chin it seems.

Syphr has also finally decided he wants to be a thumb sucker. I suspected since he was born he was going to be a thumb sucker. He was always searching for his thumb, and while he's still not able to find it himself, he can hold it in his mouth without help. It still takes some intense prying trying to get that little appendage loose from his little fist and into his mouth. He sure loves that thing though.

BRATS is back

We had a bit of a roadblock in the blogging world. The memory card reader failed to come along for our summer adventure which has made it impossible to upload any pictures....very sad. You may thank Alamo car rental, 102 degree weather, the Dodge Charger in the parking garage, and Target for bringing BRATS back into the blog world. I started blogging out entire month of June, but could never complete it because as it turns out, 3 kids don't let you get much of anything done, so hopefully with short posts here and there I'll be done blogging about June before July is over also.

We arrived safely in Virginia at the beginning of June after a very long 14 hour trip. The actual flight only takes about 210 minutes, but in attempts to save several hundred dollars I opted to go for tickets with a layover. Not only a layover, but also a night time flight. The kids will sleep, right??

I also had this bright idea that we would all take carry on bags since airlines are charging for checked luggage. What I didn't think about was us having to transport all those bags when we had the layover.

I was also completely wrong when I assumed the kids would sleep. Ashton was happy to play his DS non stop and we didn't hear a peep from him, but Tal didn't so much sleep. He screamed more than anything else. Those poor other people on the flight. Not fun at all! Syphr slept, ate, and caused several people to feel the need to stop and have a conversation with us about Syphr, or the fact we have 3 boys.

Regardless, the boys looked so cute strolling through the airport with their own bags which I'm so grateful they were excited to pull themselves most of the time.

Right now we are all crammed into a one bedroom apartment. Yes, five people in a one bedroom apartment. It hasn't been as bad as I thought, although some days when Brad is on his 14 hour shift I want to pull my hair out, but it could be much worse, and we would rather be here all together than not. Brad just so happens to have a couch and a love seat which is perfect since we have one couch sized boy and one love seat sized boy at bedtime. Talan always falls off his bed, but I think he does that at home too:

Talan vs. Syphr

Talan so far has been a super big brother. By that I mean he's not trying to hit him, and occasionally cares why he is crying. My favorite is when he looks at me and says, "Mom...get your baby. I sit with daddy, you pick up your baby." Ok, Talan.

He is however acting like a big brother. See below. Talan hears Syphr starting to cry, and climbs onto the bed. Trying to help he crouches right over his brothers face saying, "its okay baby Syphr. why are you sad?"

Syphr continued to cry, a little louder now, and Talan gave up with trying to get him to stop and decided he would try a brotherly approach. Apparently that means poking Syphr in the head with the end of a rope. Syphr did not like it and Talan moved on to the rest of his daily business.

BellaRay strikes again

A couple days ago we took the boys to have a little photo shoot with a super amazing photographer in town. All three of them were uncooperative at some point, but Amber (BellaRay Photography) is so amazing, and made the 6 month stress of choosing what they would wear completely worth it!

Here is a sneak peek of my three adorable guys!

I don't think they could have come out any more adorable!

Family of 5

Meet the newest member of the BRAT......or should I say BRATS clan.

Syphr Pre Coates

7lbs 13oz
20 inches long
12:50 PM

We're so happy Syphr is here and healthy, and Brad was able to make it back for the birth. Syphr and I are trying to figure each other out, but we're both doing great!

Its no secret we've kept his name under wraps until now. Mostly because we were trying to avoid unwanted opinions and figured we would get more than a handful for this one! We've already been asked several times so here it goes:


How Syphr came about:

Brad and I had a small list of a few names we liked, but didnt know if we loved. There's that feeling of 'yeah, thats it' when you find the perfect name. We would spend a week calling the baby by each name on the list and while we liked them (except Ashton...he pretty much hated all of them, but would give no suggestions of his own), none seemed perfect for the little guy, yet not being able to think of anything else, and my exhaustion of baby name books and websites we hung onto them as a back up.

Around my third trimester Brad and I were well into watching all seasons of 24. We always joked about naming the baby Jack Bauer because, if you haven't heard, Jack Bauer is pretty much awesome, and indestructable. Dare I say he could probably take on Chuck Norris. As awesome as he is Jack is way too popular for my taste. I vowed not to name my kids the trendy names of the decade.

Shortly after we started season 2 of another show we both love called Legend of the Seeker. We joked that the main character, Richard Cypher, is like the Jack Bauer of the midlands. As soon as that was said we looked at each other and said, "how about Syphr?" Just had to change the spelling a bit. Ashton hated it at first, but agreed to call the baby Syphr for a week. After the first day of calling him Syphr I knew we had it. That perfect name feeling.

Pronunciation: Sigh-fer

How Pre came about:

Steve Prefontaine. A phenominal runner who set amazing records. He ran for the University of Oregon from 1970-1973, but was sadly killed in a car accident in 1975. If he was still alive, he would be the greatest runner in the world today, no doubt. The movie about his life is a favorite of ours, and even Ashton's when he was younger. I highly recommend it!

Anyway, Brad has always pushed to name a kid Prefontaine. It turned out to be a no go with Talan. This time around we shortened the name to be either Pre or Fontaine. We started calling the baby Pre, and both really liked it. I could just think of too many ways he would be made fun of with a name like that. Hence, it is his middle name. I'm sure you'll find us calling him Pre though.


So far I've had three kids for half a day and it is fantastic. That being said, I'm still laying in bed, my food is brought to me whenever I want, and I'm not required to look fashionable. Once that changes, and I return home to the total chaos that is my other two children, I might have a different outlook. I will enjoy these next couple days of quiet before my incredibly busy week continues.

Ashton loves his new baby brother. He is already the most fantastic big brother there is, and hopefully some of that awesomeness has rubbed of on moody Talan. He is constantly requesting to hold his new little brother, and we caught him (below) singing Rock-a-bye Baby as he rocked little Syphr in the rocking chair. Too sweet.

Talan was a little freaked out by Syphr. We talked several times about the day that Syphr would come out of my tummy, but that has to be hard to grasp as a 2 year old. He just kept staring at him, and wasn't sure he wanted to touch him until he saw Ashton hold him. Then I guess it wasn't so scary. He is very sweet with his new brother gently touching his hands and head, and Syphr even got a few kisses which means you are in good graces with Talan.

For now, we are enjoying figuring each other out...all five of us.

Wacky Hair Day!

I just wanted to look at the cool rooms at the Designer Showhouse to gain some sort of crafting inspiration with my favorite crafting partner. However, there was a bit of a traumatizing experience upon completion of our tour of the first house which led me to ask, 'did that just happen?!'

Because of this experience I have compiled a list of 7 things which are NOT acceptable to say to both a complete stranger, and also someone who is 9 months pregnant and practically miserable.

NEVER:

1. Point at the pregnant person's stomach and say, "Good luck with that." If you just stop at 'good luck' its a nice comment and something that is acceptable to say to someone you do not know. Adding 'with that' to the end of the comment makes it seem as though I have a life altering problem that she is glad to not be a part of. I personally am growing a fetus, or baby, or child, not "that".

2. Tell a pregnant person a story about your friend whose baby died 2 weeks before she was to be born. As if I don't have enough to deal with, lets add paranoia of everything that could go wrong enter my brain.

3. Act as if my life is over because I'm having another boy. Sure I would have enjoyed having a girl, if only to do her hair and shop with her. The fact of it is, I enjoy shopping by myself, and I can barely keep Talan's chicken hair under control. We were given a baby who happens to be a boy and we couldn't be more thrilled about that.

4. Gloat that your third baby was a girl. That's awesome. See comment three. I'm sure she finds you insanely embarrassing.

5. When I am waddling around, barely able to breathe, having all sorts of contractions all the time, and a baby is head-butting my bladder as I walk past several bathrooms labeled 'please do not use'...basically when I'm in my misery mode...do not recommend a book to me aimed at achieving the desired gender of your next baby. As if I even want to consider being pregnant again right at this moment in my life.

6. I can not stress this one enough! It is bad enough to recommend the book stated in comment 5, but do not feel as if you need to go into further detail of what is stated in the book and use words such as: ovulation, conceive, and sperm. On that note, I did not ask, nor do I want to know when you ovulated and conceived your own children. Gross!

7. This is just for anyone in general, not only when encountering a pregnant stranger. If someone is walking out the door, and starting to hobble down the stairs, not making any eye contact with you, it probably means they are trying to leave, and do not wish to engage in a family planning discussion with you. Let them leave.


Thank you.

Science Rules!

Yes, my 8 year old is a science geek. He recently used half of his birthday itunes gift card stash to buy 17 episodes of his all time favorite show....Bill Nye the Science Guy. In his defense, he also bought another Jonas Brothers cd to balance out his nerdiness with a little coolness.

We are 3 episodes in and have so far learned about chemical reactions, pollution, and static electricity/air pressure. In each episode there is at least 1 experiment to try at home.

We tried this one tonight...




I highly recommend Bill Nye the Science Guy to all you fellow science geeks out there.

TMI

By the title of this blog post I just want to say you have been warned that further content might cause you to feel great regret for not stopping reading right here.

A couple days ago I was getting Talan ready for bed. Before I put on a new diaper I always ask him if he wants to sit on his potty. He always says no and I shrug and let it go because I had accepted his decision that he would never leave his diapers behind. However this time he said yes, ran to his frog potty and ran out screaming, "I PEED!" All day yesterday and today he has been wearing underwear. Ashton's underwear actually, what a great brother to share! It has been going great! Four accidents yesterday and only one actual accident today. We are on the road to success.

Today brought something new to the potty training world that I have never experienced before. (this is where the tmi comes in). Talan was playing in the living room and all was well. Next thing I know Talan comes strolling into my room tossing a piece of poop back and forth in his hands as if it were a new ball. I froze. He looked at me and said, "what's that mommy?" Part of me wanted to laugh hysterically, but instead we had to talk about how we don't touch poop, which sadly wouldn't be the first time we've had this conversation.

This too shall pass, right?

It doesn't matter what Ashton is doing. All Talan knows is that Ashton is doing it so it must be awesome and he's going to do it too.