The Warriors: Catching Up

The last two weeks have been a blur around the Warrior house!! Necon went back to work and my mom has been helping me figure out how to take care of two kiddos under 14 months old! There is NO WAY I would have made it through without my mother...her help, advice and cleaning skills have been a complete lifesaver! Thursday and Friday I made it ALL DAY by myself and even got some cleaning done! Last weekend we made a trip to OKC to visit our family (pictures below). On the way down, the stomach bug attacked us. I was sick all weekend. Then Necon got it Tuesday and gave it back to me. I think Friday was the first day we felt really good again...thank goodness we made it through without the kids getting sick. (Knock on wood!) I will thank the bug for helping me to a grand total of 25 pounds lost so far!! 30 to go...AGGHH!!

Lydia is still doing well with Levi. We try to encourage her to interact with him, and she is really really sweet almost always. On Thursday morning (that's right...my first day completely by myself), as I was taking the water bottle she was aiming at him out of her right hand, she swiped my phone with her left and smacked Levi right in his face. Really hard! It made him bleed, which made me mad, sad, frustrated, guilty, etc. I spanked Lydia really hard, and then she cried really hard. I got Levi all cleaned up and went back into the living room to find her sitting in her rocking chair with her head down. She kept peeking over at me, but would look back down when I looked at her. I think she got the message! After he was fed and sleeping, I played with her for a while before she took her nap so she would know I wasn't mad. She hasn't hit him since, so we are keeping our fingers crossed!!

I guess it is true what they say about kids and the boxes things come in. This is the box from their stroller...I love these pictures a lot. Lydia looks like such a big girl (as in age not size! I am aware she is humongous!!)

Visiting OKC

Disclaimer: I did a HORRIBLE job of taking pictures. I actually have hardly any at all. I apologize to you all!

We left for Oklahoma City first thing Saturday morning. We met Steve (aka GUS...Great Uncle Steve), Aunt Julie and Jenny in Bricktown for lunch at a BarBQ place. Aunt Julie had the best gifts for the kids. Lydia got a little rolling backpack that she can take with her when she spends the night away. She used it last night to go to Grandma and Papa Chiefs!! (She is still there, and that is why we are still in bed at 1:20 in the afternoon!!) Levi got a very cool plush changing pad. We have used the one they gave Lydia TONS, so I am excited to have one for him too. Aunt Julie also knitted Levi a sweet blanket.

We left Bricktown and headed into Edmond to see Mama Jo and Papa Staff (my mom's parents). Levi Stafford is named after my Papa Staff, who is actually Ross Stafford North. We were really excited to share Levi with them and get some pictures of the namesakes together. With our big family, it is always nice to have time to ourselves with our grandparents!

Lydia got a really special treat: playtime in the toybox with Mama Jo and Papa. There is a large gameroom in their house complete with player piano, pool table and the toy box. This is special because it is full of toys our parents played with when they were little. (I will not say the toy are VERY old, but...)

My Papa Staff is one of the most wonderful and Godly men that have ever lived. He is tenderhearted, kind, loves his family and God. He has devoted his whole life to bringing others to Christ through preaching and through his work with Oklahoma Christian. He has been there since the beginning and is one of the top reasons for the success of the school. At Homecoming this year, they will be debuting a book he poured himself into that documents the history of the school...it is over 500 pages long!! We couldn't be more proud to name our son after him! We love you Papa!

Lydia also spend some time out on the sunporch. She really enjoyed playing on the swing. It reminded her of how sleepy she was!

Then we left Edmond and headed to Oklahoma City for my Great Grandmother's 90th birthday party. This would be my dad's mom's mom. I was feeding Levi and putting Lydia to bed and missed the birthday cake and singing, so Aunt Barbara is sending me her pictures to post. More to come...

Tia and Levi napping

(seriously...they slept here for 3 hours!!)

Then Levi napped some more in a very girlie chair! I will take a break here and give a 2 week update. He is up to almost 8 pounds, so I can quite worrying about having enough milk! Breast feeding didn't go well with Lydia, so I keep thinking the success with him is too good to be true. He is staying awake for longer periods and really looking at us. He absolutely HATES to be in a dirty diaper, which may be normal for most babies, but we are not used to it. Lydia would stay in the same diaper all day until it fell off from being so heavy. Also, the sleepless nights are starting. We knew they would since Lydia slept all night from the beginning. It is not quite as bad as I had imagined, but it is definitely something to get used to. He eats every 3 hours and will sleep about 4 1/2 in the middle of the night. Then I have to pull him into bed with us to help him wait out the last our and a half. I may just give in and feed him in the middle of the night and hope at some point he will just sleep all the way through. We are just enjoying the mess out of him...God's plan really is better than ours!! How could you not need a baby this precious??

Grandma and Levi...still not sure how Necon got her to volunteer for a picture

We left Lydia with my parents overnight and headed back to Edmond to stay the night with Ross and Jenny. As always, we didn't get to spend near as much time with them as we wanted, but it was better than nothing. We went to Memorial Road for church on Sunday then on to Mama Jo's for a traditional Sunday lunch of Roast, mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli casserole! It was delicious. Here is a picture of the three Great Grandchildren I stole from Michelle's blog:

3 Weeks

Levi was 3 weeks old yesterday. He is getting so big...it is amazing how little time they spend as a tiny newborn! He is up to 8 lbs 6 oz! I still worry he is not getting enough to eat. I am just so used to bottle feeding where I know exactly how many calories are going in! But still extremely happy breastfeeding seems to be working. He is pretty fast...10 to 15 minutes per feeding, so feeding every 3 hours is not too bad! I officially gave up trying to force him to skip his middle of the night feeding. Now we both wake up and Necon changes his diaper while I pump enough for a bottle. Then Necon and Levi spend some quality time together eating while I finish pumping. The whole thing only takes about 20 minutes and we are back to sleep! Plus, I am adding to the stash of milk in the freezer. Yesterday he smiled at me twice while he was awake! I am very aware he is not doing this intentionally yet, but when he is staring up at me grinning ear to ear, it doesn't really matter! We still have no idea who in the world he looks like, but are very much amused at the fact he looks all boy! No mistaking that at least!! Thank you all for the gifts, food and prayers! I think we are pretty well into a routine, my hormones are back to normal, and it feels like we have the hang of this.

While we were in OKC, Michelle gave us a CD of pictures she took when Levi was born. I couldn't be more greatful for these!! She really captured the emotion of the morning, and got a lot of pictures we will treasure forever. Here are my favs...

Lydia helping Cooper learn to crawl

One of the RARE shots of my belly

Sweet Lydia Kisses

Lydia was quite amused with the monitors. Everytime she hit the fetal monitor, it made a loud noise. I am sure the RNs and MDs watching the monitor, trying to make sure Levi was doing well really appreciated the pattern she was making!!