December 18, 2008
Happy Birthday Jesus
It has been neat seeing our kids' excitement for Christmas - not for opening presents, but just for the day to come. And Jaron's perspective of the day is right on - he says, "On Jesus' birthday it will be Christmas!" I think most of us would say it the other way around, or at least I would. I love that he realizes what Christmas is about, even at the age of 4.
For some reason the main thing that Jaron associates with birthdays is cake (maybe because usually the only time he gets to have any is at someone's birthday party!) This morning he made me laugh when he said, "On 25 it will be Jesus' birthday. What kind of birthday cake does He want?" Gotta love the way kids think!
Posted by laini at 12:23 PM | Comments (2)
December 5, 2008
A Year Can Be a Lifetime
I notice that I haven't made a post since March! I'm not even going to bother with excuses. We'll see if there is anyone out there that even checks my blog anymore....
Today was Jonah's first birthday. This year has flown by, but for Jonah, it has been a lifetime! It is hard to remember life without Jonah even though this year has gone by quickly. I feel bad for him being a third child and not getting the same attention as I gave the first two in terms of photos, blog entries, and baby book entries. Life just gets a little more crazy when you have 3 kids! We love Jonah so much and he has been a wonderful addition to our family. He is fairly laid back and enjoys watching his brothers play and is now getting to the point where he tries to play with them. He is starting to talk now - "mama, dada, ball, bye bye, stinky (for his feet!)". He is not walking yet, nor standing up on his own, but we are in no hurry!
Happy birthday Jonah - may God give you many years of living for Him and bringing glory to His name. You are such a precious gift and we thank God for you!
Posted by laini at 11:17 PM | Comments (8)
March 25, 2008
Easter
I think that Jonah may be our most photogenic child - I couldn't get the other boys to smile!
Friends that celebrated the day with us - Gurney, Miriam, and Mary
Posted by laini at 2:44 PM | Comments (0)
March 6, 2008
Funny Comment
Jaron's memory and perception of where we are always amazes me. Today we were driving to Target and were passing by the hospital where I gave birth to Jonah. Jaron says, "Hey mommy - that is where you and Jonah live!"
Well, that is better than where he said we lived a few weeks ago. I was talking about Tennessee and Jaron asked what Tennessee was. I said, "Tennessee is where we live." Jaron laughed and said, "No mommy, we don't live in Tennessee. We live in Target!" Uh...is that his subtle way of telling me we shop too much? :)
Posted by laini at 3:01 PM | Comments (0)
February 29, 2008
Keeping up with our lives
I figured it was probably time to give an update on my boys. I would like to start blogging more about them and what they are doing in their different stages of life. I have heard about a site that turns your blog into a book and so now my plan is to start blogging about the boys more so that I can have a concrete record of my kids as they grow up. We'll see if I actually keep up with it! So if you feel like I am talking about my kids too much, I am not trying to brag or anything - it is more for me than anything. You can just stop reading my blog if you feel like it is getting excessive (which I doubt it will with how little I blog!).
Jaron is now 3 1/2 years old. He left the baby phase and has turned into a little boy, without me even realizing it. He has become more friendly and seems to be a lot more comfortable in different situations. He loves to "read", memorizing almost every library book that we check out each month. He loves numbers and counting, which really took off when we did an advent calendar in December. He can now count to 100, which he basically taught himself to do. He has an amazing memory, which I think he got from his dad, and can recite The Lord's Prayer, Psalm 23, and the beginning of Luke 2. He and Elias are best buds right now and have fun reading together, playing with their train set, wrestling, and singing, singing, singing! They also seem to enjoy fighting, seeing that they do it so often!
Elias is my little feisty boy. He will be 21 months next week, but he seems to have already entered into the terrible twos! My mom said that the terrible twos are more like the terrible pre-twos, and always started with her kids around 18 months. So I guess Elias is right on track then! When he throws a fit there is nothing you can do to console him. He becomes totally irrational and cries so hard that he starts shaking and can hardly catch his breath. When he does this, all I can do is hold him and let him get it out of his system. But when he is done he turns immediately back into his sweet, fun self. He makes us smile all the time does and says the cutest things. He can talk up a storm too! And like Jaron, he loves to look at books and tries to quote them along with Jaron. He can count to 10 and recognizes numbers, even though he doesn't know which number he is looking at. And he loves to snack!
Jonah will be 3 months old next week. He is such a sweet baby. He still sleeps a lot during the day and has proven to be my best sleeper so far. He will wake up only once or twice a night to nurse and then will go right back to sleep. He is great at sleeping in his own bed and does well at settling back to sleep if something stirs him awake. One of his favorite things to do is to get his diaper changed. Sometimes if he is crying, Ben will lay him down and change his diaper, or even act like he is changing his diaper, just to make him happy! He smiles a lot and I love to hear him laugh, which we can make him do by tickling him or talking in funny voices to him. He is also our biggest boy yet, weighing in at 20lbs. 12 oz. 2 weeks ago!
So now you are all caught up with my little boys. Hopefully future posts won't be as long.
Posted by laini at 4:10 PM | Comments (0)
January 8, 2008
1 month update
Jonah had his 1 month doctor's appointment today. He is now weighing in at 15 lbs. 10 oz.! So he is WAY off of the charts for weight and is above the 95th percentile for height as well (23 3/4 inches). I guess my little boy is not so little!
He is fitting into the family just fine and his brothers have gotten used to having him around. Elias struggled a little when he was first born, in that he was more whinny. But he has gotten better. And who knows if that was just an age thing or if it had to do with having a new baby brother. But he is very sweet with Jonah and loves to give him kisses and touch (more like poke) and name the different parts of his face. Jaron has been my big helper and has really grown into his role as big brother (even though he is always following Elias around and copying him, instead of it being the other way around!). And mom and dad are doing well too and have adjusted to our growing family. I love having 3 boys and hope that they are good friends throughout their lives. I am starting to get out more and actually went to a store with the boys all by myself yesterday, which I am quite proud of! Jonah sleeps really well in his carseat so he is usually not much of a problem when we go out. He is really easy going too which helps. So we are slowly getting the hang of it all, through God's help!
I couldn't help posting this picture - it makes me laugh!
Posted by laini at 3:47 PM | Comments (0)
January 2, 2008
Boy oh Boy oh Boy!
It has taken me a while to finally sit down and write about my youngest son, Jonah. I feel bad about not updating my faithful readers sooner about the birth and first days of Jonah, but honestly, I AIN'T GOT THAT KINDA TIME! Well, actually, I have had the free time, but I haven't had the free HANDS! So while Jonah is napping in his carseat, I am going to try to quickly fill you in on the birth of baby Jonah. But you will have to wait another 4 weeks to read about how life has actually been since Jonah joined the family!
It was a strange labor experience for me. I began having contractions at around 10pm on Dec. 4th. They were not strong or consistent, so I went to bed not sure if I was really in labor or not. I woke up around 1:30pm with contractions that were closer together, so I got out of bed and went upstairs so that I could move around and try to relax some. The contractions were still not very strong, but they were about 3-6 minutes apart. So after an hour I called my midwife and she told me that I should probably head to the hospital. The only reason I called her was because I needed to get 2 doses of penicillin before I delivered the baby because I had tested positive for Group B Strep. But I was not feeling like the baby was coming anytime soon. Even though the contractions were close together, they were not intense at all and I just didn't have the "feeling" of being close to delivering my baby. But I called my sister and sister-in-law to come on over to watch the boys, and got ready to leave.
Continue reading "Boy oh Boy oh Boy!"
Posted by laini at 4:19 PM | Comments (0)
December 5, 2007
Introducing Jonah Kondwani Huffine
Just a quick post to say that Jonah Kondwani Huffine was born this morning (12/5/2007) at 7:59am. He weighed in at 10 lbs. 8 oz. and was 22" long.
Mother and son are doing well and will be home in a couple of days. We're all very tired, but very happy that Jonah has finally been born.
I'll post more, and better, pictures later, but here's one to give you an idea what he looks like.
Posted by bhuffine at 10:19 PM | Comments (8)
November 29, 2007
Due Date Comes and Goes
I am now officially overdue. My due date was yesterday, the 28th, and this baby is still hanging on. For some reason, I really thought this baby would be early. Obviously that hunch was wrong! So now we are playing the waiting game. I am currently 2cm dilated, which if I went by previous pregnancies would mean I am close. With Jaron, I didn't start dilating until the day he was born. With Elias, I was 2cm dilated at my last doctor's appointment, so he came in less than a week of being dilated. So we will see what happens. I go in for an ultrasound today to see how big they think the baby is. With Jaron they predicted him to be over 11 pounds! So I am not counting on the ultrasound being very accurate. But my midwife seems to trust thier in-house ultrasounds a lot more than the other place I went with Jaron. They never had a chance to guess Elias' weight because he was born on his due date.
I wouldn't necessarily say that I am ready for the baby to come, but I am definitely ready to not be pregnant anymore. Ready to stop having to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Ready to not have constant pressure in my pelvis. Ready to be able to tie my own shoes again. Ready to wear clothes that are actually big enough to cover my entire belly. Ready to be able to pick up my kids without pain and have somewhere to actually hold them. And of course I am ready to meet my new little child and see how he/she will add to our family.
Please pray for a safe delivery for baby #3 and that it is a satisfying birth experience for me. And pray for the boys that they will adjust well to another sibling and that they will be happy while their parents are away at the hospital. Elias has been very clingy recently, as if he senses that a new baby is coming soon, so I have no idea how he will be being left without us for so long. So I am just praying that God would give him all that he needs to be content while we are away.
We are still undecided on a boys name so if anyone has any suggestions, we are open to anything!
Posted by laini at 9:00 AM | Comments (8)
October 30, 2007
New Addition to the Family
No baby yet, but we do have a new car. Yeah! This was one of the things hanging over our heads that needed to be done before baby #3 arrives on the scene. We only had one car before and it could not fit 3 carseats in it, so basically we were going to be stuck at home until we got a van. But we got one. So now we will be able to leave the house as a family! It is exciting to have a van that we can actually fit things in with ease (like a double stroller), and we also have room for other people to ride with us! Wow! We basically cleared out our savings to buy the car, but at least we didn't have to go into debt to get it. It has a lot of miles on it, but if it will give us 5 good years, then we will be happy.
So now the next big thing will be finding a name for this poor little baby! We have girl names, since we haven't had to use one yet, but I am at a complete blank for boy names. Anyone have any good names? Seriously, I am up for suggestions!
In pregnancy news, I am feeling very pregnant now and ready to have my "old body" back - not that I get my old body back when the baby comes out, but at least I will be a lot closer! I am feeling achy all the time, am walking a lot slower, and seem to be having a lot of braxton hicks. I have 4 more weeks to go, but my prediction is that the baby will come early - don't know why I say that, it's just a feeling. So hopefully we will be ready!
In Jaron and Elias news, we are finally going to try to transition Elias into Jaron's room this week. I guess this would be a good time to mention that we did not sell our house. We took it off the market a few weeks ago because it was getting too close to my due date. So we will try again in the Spring to sell it. In the meantime, we are having to make do with the house we are in. So Elias will move into Jaron's crib and Jaron will sleep on the floor on a crib mattress. Since we don't have room in there for another bed, we will just put the mattress down in the middle of the floor at night and then store it away during the day. So pray that it all goes well. I'm a little anxious about it all, but hopefully they will make good roommates.
Posted by laini at 4:33 PM | Comments (6)
