"I just had to"

Londyn adores Hadley. She is such a good big sister and so helpful to Brynn and I – but we did have a little incident where Londyn found herself in hot water. Londyn was playing with Haddie in her bouncer the other day when Brynn heard Haddie scream out in pain. Brynn rushed into the room and found Londyn with a very guilty look on her face. “What happened?!” Brynn asked as she picked Haddie up and tried to console her. Londyn looked up with tear filled eyes and confessed “I bit her nose.” Brynn was beside herself and sent Londyn to her room. When I got home from work I was informed that I needed to talk to Londyn about what happened.

Brynn had dance class that night so I let it slide until I was putting Londyn to bed that night. Finally alone I asked her, “Why did you do it? You are so good with Hadley. What on earth caused you to bite her little nose?” With a remorseful look and a trembling lip Londyn said, “I don’t know. I was just playing with her and giving her kisses when I looked up and saw her little nose. And I don’t know why dad, but I just had to bite it. I couldn’t help myself.”

I guess the old adage of “you are so cute, I could just eat you up” ended up being just too tempting for Haddie’s big sister.

Same thing...different results

I wrote this in our blog about Calan 3 years ago...

Driving in the car, Cal crying in his car seat, and his 2 1/2 year old sister is singing him Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, because she knows when she is upset, singing helps calm her. Cal continues to cry, because he cannot hear his big sister singing her little heart out. And though she talks and sings to him all the time, Cal has never heard his big sisters voice...heartbreaking.

This happened on the way home from Grandpa and Grandma’s on a warm summer night. Cal was only a few months old, riding in his car seat and completely hysterical. This little moment broke my heart. I wanted so desperately for Londyn's little brother to hear her voice.

Tonight the exact same thing happened. In fact, the situation was jarringly similar. Warm summer night, driving home from Grandpa and Grandma’s, and a hysterical baby crying in the back seat. But this time it was little Hadley. She was inconsolable. After a while I heard Londyn's little voice in the back seat singing, “The Itsby, Bitsy Spider went up the water spout…”. My mind flashed back to the same moment with Cal, and my heart began to feel the same sharp pain. But then a miraculous and unexpected thing happened. Little Haddie started to calm down. I began to chalk it up to one of life’s strange coincidences when I saw movement in my rearview mirror. I looked back and noticed that Londyn was not just singing to her little sister, but she was signing the song to her as well. Haddie’s little eyes were fixed on Londyn's hands as “the rains came down and washed the spider out”. Sure enough her cries subsided as Londyn's hands and voice calmed her baby sister.

I was so proud of her...of all of us! What an incredible change our family has gone through in the past 3 years. An identical situation three years ago brought heartache and pain, but today it brought happiness and hope.

What a journey...

Welcome to the World Miss Hadley

On June 22nd, 2011 our little family of 4 became a moderately sized family of 5. Hadley Perkins was born 6 lbs. 12 oz., blonde hair, blue eyes and is doing great. You forget how tiny newborns are. Hadley makes Calan look like a mid-sized linebacker. It’s fun to have a newborn in the house again, especially a little girl. Since this is our last kiddo, Brynn is soaking up every fleeting moment she can with Hadley. Calan shows mild interest in his baby sister, but Londyn adores her. She is such a good big sister, and helps her mom out a lot. We were warned again and again that the 3rd kid was the hardest. But so far it has been pretty good (granted we haven’t been overly adventurous). I imagine in a few weeks when Londyn starts kindergarten and Cal starts pre-school, our lives may be turned upside down.



For those that have asked or wondered - we did find out that little Miss Haddie is deaf. She failed her hearing screening at the hospital, so we scheduled a follow up ABR. (They test her little brain for sound response.) She is completely deaf, just like her big brother. I won’t lie, Brynn and I were devastated. We wallowed in sadness and our own self pity for about 24 hours. After a day or so of wallowing we decided it was time to move on. It’s pretty hard to stay down when you hold a beautiful baby girl in your arms. And when you listen to her deaf big brother sing her every word to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, there just isn’t much room for sadness. The road is hard, but fortunately it’s a road we know. So thank you all for your support and love. But this little family is going to be just fine. We may be the loudest house on the block, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

A Day in the Life...

Unfortunately our house and kids usually look and dress like this. Fortunately they also do stuff like this all the time.

Hello? Anyone?

I’m BAAAACK! – and as irrelevant as ever! Much like a Brittney Spears concert tour announcemetnt; I’m sure that the zero people that read this blog are rejoicing in my triumphant return.

Where to start? I guess I will start with the family.

Sadly Brynn has become horribly fat. I mean, really fat. I don’t know what happened –around 9 months ago she started putting on weight and now...– I mean it has gotten completely ridiculous. (What’s that?...Really?! Oh…)

UPDATE: Apparently Brynn is pregnant. 37 weeks to be exact. Phew! That is a relief. In a few short weeks we will have a new addition to the family. We are terr-ited (mix of terrified and excited). We will keep you up to date and will stream the complete live delivery on this blog - stay tuned!

Londyn just turned 5-years-old and heads to Kindergarten on August 3rd. I know you think you kids are cute and I’m sure they are – but they are probably dogfaces compared to Londyn. She is absolutely adorable keeps me laughing all day long. She still loves to dance and takes everything you say absolutely literal. I love that girl - even though with her blonde hair and blue eyes I'm 80% sure she is not mine.

Cal turns 3 in August and has discreetly turned from sweet little boy to terrorizing toddler. It is not that he is malicious or naughty – he just simply has no regard for anything containing matter or substance. But he has been out of diapers and in a big boy bed for 3 months so with that credit he worked his way up to a B-. Good on ya kid. He is doing incredibly well in speech/hearing. I will have to post video for you soon to boast how awesome he is.

That is my family in a nutshell (no idea what that means).