Grandma, fire trucks, Peter is 2 weeks

Grandma got here on Thursday. Enoch kept asking over and over again as we drove to the airport where grandma's plane was. The boys have been excited to see her and we are so happy she could come. My 2 week break ends on Monday when I start psychiatry, so we will be especially grateful for the help.

Went to the Houston fire museum yesterday. They have some old fire engines which are pretty neat. The kids loved the little kiddie corner.

On the moon

I found a fun children's book about going to the moon at the library called On the Moon. Enoch really likes it reads it often. It starts with a little girl pretending to be an astronaut, then it details rockets going into space, then a bit about what the moon is like, and then blasting back off to Earth.

I think this book has blown Enoch's mind. It's like reading this book has opened his intellect to the reality that outer space exists, that the moon is a real place and separated from the earth by a real distance, that we actually live on a floating round planet, and so forth. It's so fun watching him get excited about it.

My favorite part about reading it is the end of the book. The little girl is looking up at the moon, and the text says, "Do you think you'll ever go to the moon?"

Every time, Enoch matter-of-factly says, "Yep" or "Yeah".

The way he casually thinks it's a likely possibility that he will get to visit the moon is so endearing. For the moment, he seems to have a dream, and it's fun.

Peter's first week

Photos of Peter's first week. You might notice a bit of yellowness on his skin and eyes. It started to become apparent on his 3rd day of life and was the worst on his fifth. He had blood draws on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to monitor his biliruben, and he's spent as much time as possible in front of the windows. His level got really close to needing to go to the hospital for UV light therapy yesterday. Hopefully the result today will show it going down.

Photos from the week:

Enoch's eye surgery

Post strabismus surgery. His eyes seem pretty straight!

Enoch had strabismus surgery on Tuesday. This has made for a hectic week -- Peter was born on Saturday, Sharon and Peter got home on Monday, we went to the ER Monday night and got home at 2:30 AM on Tuesday morning (long story... it was for Peter and a potential complication from his circumcision and subsequent lack of wet diapers, but all ended well), then went in for Enoch's eye surgery at 10 AM. Luckily I have the time off to be helpful.

Enoch's right eye has been crossing in for a while now, and we've been using a patch for 6 months now. Since that didn't fix the crossing, surgery was warranted.

Waiting for surgery in the holding area.

He was and still is excited about his new yellow pajamas.

When the docs came to take him away, they had an iPad. There was definitely no screaming or shouting as they hauled him off to surgery. He was too busy trying to show off his iPad skills to the doctors.

The recovery room

Enoch was not a happy camper when he woke up. One of the only instructions for us from the doctor was to not let Enoch rub his eyes and to keep them clean. Of course, that was the first thing he wanted to do when he woke up. He was a grumpy crying mess for 30-40 minutes. In the end we finally convinced him to eat a popsicle, and when he started eating it meant we could take the IV out and go home.

For dinner, he had another popsicle. I'm sure his eyes are irritated, and he likes to keep them closed at times. I think part of it is a game.

The hardest part for Enoch is the eye drops. He is supposed to use them 3 times a day. He hates it. When Michael was going for a nap today he said he wanted quiet time. I told him he could either take a nap or do the eye drops and then have quiet time. He chose to take a nap. We put them in while he was sleeping. Not a hard thing to do when he sleeps with his eyes open, so that's our new strategy.

So far it seems like his eyes are pretty straight. I'm glad we could get this taken care of for him. He'll look better, feel more confident when he's older, and have better vision.

Peter

Our babies seem to have great timing. I finished my pediatric shelf exam on Friday, which began my 2 week summer break before I start psychiatry. At 2:30 AM on Saturday morning, Sharon started having painful contractions. At 3:30 she woke me up and said 2 things:

"Sam, wake up. Two things: First, there's a cockroach in the kitchen. Second, I'm going into labor."

I killed the cockroach, we got some stuff ready, and dropped off Enoch and Michael at some amazing friends' house at about 5:45.

Eventually, a couple of hours passed that Sharon described as the worst pain of her life. She got an epidural, we tried to relax for a few hours, and at 2:00 PM she started feeling intense pressure down there. At around 2:25 she started pushing, and at about 2:35 Peter was born.

Sharon did great. She pushed that baby right out and didn't tear, either. She's feeling better than she ever imagined she would, too. I feel so fortunate that everything went so well. A wonderful early father's day present.

Sharon and Peter come home tomorrow. Like the other boys, we gave him Sharon's maiden name "You" as his middle name.

Pictures:

Our family of four boys and a woman. Enoch and Michael weren't necessarily wanting to cooperate.

When we got to the hospital, Sharon was afraid they would send her home and call it false labor. We did 6 laps around the hospital, which is about 1.2 miles, to keep those contractions going.

Sharon and Peter, about 30 seconds old.

Seven pounds seven ounces. 19.75 inches tall.

Happy Father's day!

This shot is less staged then you might think. Enoch gets excited about Peter. Michael verbally admitted that he's scared of Peter.

A fun family activity: Bowling

I personally really likes bowling even though I'm not good at it at all. A week ago we had a chance to go to a charity ball/bowling party on a date while our dear friends babysat our kids (Thanks so much for wonderful friends who are there for us when our families are so far away!). We got to hang out with some of Sam's classmates, ate delicious southern food and bowl at the same time. It was a lot of fun!


Here are some pictures we took with Sam's Nexus:

Sam in action

Sam in action 2

Sam later figured out how to add spins to the ball. He got pretty good at it.

I'm pretty focused. 

Me in action

I'm grateful that we can still make time to go out and have fun! 

At the party, I told Sam that I wish our kids are old enough so that we can take them to bowl together. This will be a fun family activity that we'll keep for years and years. At that time I didn't know kids can go bowling at a very young age here and shortly after,  we actually got the perfect chance to take our kids to bowl.

A friend from our ward shared this wonderful "Kids Bowl Free" deal where each kid gets to play 2 games a day for free for the entire summer. All you need to pay for is the shoe rental. After knowing that there's no young end age limit, I immediately registered Enoch and Michael. And today we took the kids to bowl for the first time. They LOVED it!

Daddy teaching Enoch to bowl 

Michael was a little nervous at beginning, I was trying to get him to hold the ball.

Enoch bowling all by himself! 

Michael did really good being a one year old.

Enoch was really happy with himself. Love his smiles.

Proof of Michael's strong arms! 

Though I think this triangle thing doesn't really teach them how to bowl, it save us a lot of efforts to pick up the balls that stuck on the lane :) 

This is going to be another fun kids activity for the summer other than swimming! Especially that I won't be able to swim for a long time after the baby, we'll have something to entertain the kids.