New Grandbaby! Meet Baby Nicholai Stephen Rodgers

 

Isn't he so darling?  Tim and I are so happy to have another grandson.  The first picture is of Brenan (1) and Nikolai and the second is of Colin (1)with Nikolai. These three are my grandchildren from my oldest son, Matthew and his wife Amanda who are stationed in North Carolina at Camp LeJune.  I sure wish they lived closer!

I'll let Amanda tell you all about the birth of Nikolai in her own words.......

Here are a couple pictures of Nikolai that Matthew took.  The labor was really great.  I started having contractions around 3 Monday afternoon, but didn't really go into labor until around 9.  The doctor broke my water just after 2 am, and he was born about an hour later, at 3:20.  Only the last hour after my water broke was really intense, before that the labor was fairly mild- I'd much rather have a 7 hour labor like this one than a 4 hour labor like Colin's!  Colin and Brennan were both very intense from start to finish.

Nikolai was born weighing 9 pounds, 1 ounce, and 21 inches long.  He had a pretty low blood sugar level right after he was born, even after nursing, so I had to give him a bottle of glucose formula, and that helped bring it up to normal.  They still checked his sugar level every few hours until he had several good readings in a row, because it had been so low, and they wanted to make sure it didn't plummet again.  Everything else was pretty good, and the hospital was very supportive of me wanting to have a natural birth.  They knew I'd already had two homebirths, and that Brennan was close to 9 1/2 pounds, so they weren't too worried about me, and let me do pretty much whatever I wanted.  All in all, it was better than I expected it to be.

Colin and Brennan both love having a new baby.  Brennan wouldn't even look at either me or Nikolai the first day, until Matthew brought him up on the bed and made him touch him.  Today he's been climbing up on the bed next to us and "holding" Nikolai and giving him kisses.  It's really sweet!  Colin from the very beginning has been bringing toys and blankets for him, and wanting to do everything he can for him.  He got kind of freaked out when he saw the umbilical cord when I did a diaper change- I don't think he was expecting that!  I told him that was how his belly button was made, and "the black thing" will fall off when it's done, and that made him happy again.  He's been doing a lot better than I thought he would.

One of us will send some more pictures soon.  I just wanted to get a couple sent now so everyone could see the new little guy.

Summertime and the living is........ FUN... with grandkids!!

You're right...it's fall not summer...but see if this post won't remind you of what it was like just a few short weeks ago..when it was really really hot! 

Tim, the kids, and I had two great visits this summer with Amanda and the grandkids.  Matthew was able to come down for Rebekah's graduation but most of the time, he was in Russian language school in Texas, so Amanda was on her own for a few months before they packed up and moved to North Carolina.  She visited her parents in Sugar Land and her grandmother in Huntsville too.

Amanda and I got to celebrate Mother's Day together this year.  It seems like only a few years ago, that I was struck with amazement at having all these little babies around and now I'm amazed that we have all these grandbabies!  One minute you are a mom and the next...a mom-in-law...times 2!

In May, right after graduation, we realized that it was Colin's birthday and since I had been rather busy with the graduation, I forgot all about getting stuff to celebrate his birthday. I was busily sewing  his gift but had not thought about having cake and candles ready. (I learned how to make an allergen free birthday cake this May!)

Necessity is the mother of invention though and here you can see that Colin, now three is quite happy with our 'impromptu' patriotic birthday. (We borrowed Rebekah's graduation party decorations which were 'Texan' in theme.)  Since Colin is the proud son of a Marine, this seemed an appropriate theme for his little party!  I sewed him the cutest cowboy costume and got him a hat, but I can't find the pix to post at the moment.

Summertime is a great time for birthdays..but also for swimming and for watermelon.  The boys, it turned out, love watermelon and here...you can see why! Ride 'em cowboy!  Silly me..and I thought you were supposed to eat them!



Brennan, I'm afraid this is one toy you won't be taking home with you!

 One nice thing about being at Grandma's is that their Aunt Rebekah and Uncles' Jacob and Christian  are here to play with them when everyone else is tired out!








Jacob took good care of Brennan while Amanda and Christian entertained Colin when we went to Candy Cane Park one afternoon.

Amanda stayed with us a couple of weeks over the summer all told.  We went to the park, 'swam' in our jacuzzi, and Tim gave the boys rides on the riding lawnmower.

 However, sometimes the most entertaining part of the visit was just eating lunch!

Colin thought lunchtime was a lot of fun too...especially if Grandma had the camera..which of course I did!!

 And after lunch, we all watched Winnie the Pooh until Brenan fell asleep. And sometimes Grandpa would read Colin a story from the same book that Grandpa, Daddy, and Uncle Jacob all loved...Richard Scary's Best Storybook ever!
 

 There's nothing quite like a summer with grandbabies!