Grandparent Rotation and Photo Dump

 Just so you know, right after you have a baby, you find yourself taking 10 billion pictures of said baby, most of which look the exact same, and many which aren't great quality or perhaps even that cute, and then you share them. You share them all. Because the world needs to see. And you simply cannot be bothered to choose. You are welcome.

A few hours after my mom left, Ryan's parents (Oma and Opa) arrived. Hurray!!!

This is where Devry spent pretty much the entire week. Oma had to arm wrestle Opa to get the chance to hold her. ;) 

 Oma picked up where Grandma left off - cleaning, organizing, cooking, and entertaining Pierscen. Opa tackled our basement, which considering we don't even live down there, manages to become one of the most cluttered places in the house. They also took Pierscen to story time and swimming. (My mom also took him to story time). I think it helped to get him out of the house. 

Thank you Oma and Opa! I cannot thank you enough! I, of course, slept. A lot. :)

Sometime that week, perhaps it was Monday (everything is such a blur) I took P into the doctor again for help with his breathing. We did multiple breathing treatments, but it didn't really help much. In fact, I think his stats went down each time. Weird. The important thing was that he was acting like himself. Just wheezing like crazy. And then the started coughing. Not what you want to hear when you have a newborn and Mr. Cough-er won't stay away from her.

While Oma and Opa were here, we gave Devry her first bath. She did not love it. But she did pretty good considering. In fact, she now LOVES her baths. 

 The following pictures made her look super jaundiced. But her pediatrician had her levels checked while I was getting my second blood patch and everything came back good. She was a tiny bit yellow, but I think it was mostly just the lighting.

See? She looks better in these ones. 

Oma kept P busy with lots of projects including decorating sugar cookies. Best activity ever! 90% sprinkles. :)

Look at that tiny head! Babies are incredible. 

From the get go, Devry has decided that bed time is around midnight. Even if she dozes before that, she will wake up and just want to hang out until about midnight each night. But hey, it's pretty sweet to sit and talk with her. 

Those eyes. :) And very thoughtful poses. (Yes, both of those were taken in the bathroom while P was in the tub.)

 I love watching babies sleep - especially when they are milk drunk. It's fantastic.

 Some time during the week Ryan's work had their Christmas party/lunch and spouses were invited. So I put on real clothes, makeup, and actually did my hair and headed out while Oma and Opa watched the kiddos. It was really nice to get out of the house and to feel something like a human again. Haha.

In the afternoon, Opa took Pierscen and Oma for a sled ride. Or, and ice ride. P loved it!

That night Ryan and I went on a real date. Shocking! Okay, well, mostly a real date. We spent the majority of the date at the Verizon store buying new smart phones for Ry and his parents. Afterward we went to Outback Steakhouse.

I ordered fish tacos and wow! I was blown away. I have never seen fish tacos this big and with this much fish. They were delicious!

As for the picture below, it's one of my all time favorites. Yes, it has a story, but these kind of stories are never as funny to anyone else. But we are pretty proud of this baby. LOL!

Unfortunately, the time for our grandparent help came to an end and it was time to try it on our own.

It was both easier and harder than I imagined. Aside from just the physical recovery (pain in the rear), there were a few things that made it difficult. One, it was winter. And winter in Wyoming is rough. It's so dang cold. So I didn't want to go anywhere. But Pierscen had major cabin fever. I found that I was super short tempered - and it was stuff that was not worth being frustrated over. Pierscen was just being Pierscen. I felt horrible about it. Combo of hormones and being locked inside... it was hard. 

To Pierscen's credit, he has been amazing from the get go. He loves Devry like crazy. He always wants to hold her and help her. The only thing I noticed that would fall under jealously is the fact that he always wanted his picture taken whenever I was taking Devry's picture. I think I mentioned that in a previous post. Anyway, aside from that, P has been the best brother I could hope for. 

One fun thing that made this little dude pretty happy was paying his tithing for the first time. He had saved up from chores and such and had ten whole dollars in his piggy bank. He put a dollar aside and paid it the next week. (As a sad side note, we took the rest of his money to the bank and on the way out, I dropped his piggy bank. It shattered. P burst into tears. It was pretty tragic and he couldn't stop talking about it for a while. But he has a new one now and all is well.)

More "take my picture mom!"

A few days before Christmas, Devry had her two week checkup. This one went much better. No spinal headache to keep me in a haze.

She gained 10 oz in those two weeks. Pretty fantastic! That put her at 6 lbs 9 oz. Still tiny, but that's great weight gain. (7th percentile).

The doctor said everything looked great. And, did I mention, I did that check up all by myself with two kids? Go me! Haha.

To end this post - here are some pictures of some sweet big brother moments. 

Reading to his sister:

Posing together:

I am lucky to have these kiddos. Even with all of Pierscen's crazy energy, I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful boy to be her big brother. I love these two with all my heart.