Boy Mom

Welcome Wesley Elwood Young, born March 17th, 2019 at 10:50 am. 

At 9 lbs. 10 ounces and 22 1/2 inches, he is the little shrimp of the family. 

A few days after he was born someone called me a 'boy mom'--if the next one is a boy maybe 'boy machine' is more appropriate. 

Or just 'insane'. 

Go Texans Day

It's a thing. Luke's school had it, Ken's work had it, lots of overwhelming Texas pride everywhere.  

None as cute as these two, though!

Meeting Baby Maxwell

Aka the cousin with the largest head (which in a family of Shaner-sized noggins is quite the feat). 

Some helpful things we learned for our next baby:

#1: Luke still likes to "hold and dump", i.e. shove the baby off without warning when finished (as he did the first time he held Derek). 

#2: Derek is most likely going to be quite jealous, as he needed to be held immediately after Maxwell when I took a turn. 

#3: The baby will probably need to be watched pretty closely for a good long while; poor Maxwell, who hardly ever cried and handled all cousin-mauling like a champ, was still pretty thoroughly smothered whenever he was left in a baby chair at cousin level.

But most importantly: Calm, content, pleasant, un-bored babies do exist! And can be produced by members of our family! As Ken said the other day, "Maybe we will finally get a baby that will just like to sit."

Tooth #2!

And the first visit from the tooth fairy, since Luke opted to keep Tooth #1 for his baby book. 

This loss was a bit of a saga. Luke came running over from the playground after school (I had just arrived and we were playing for a few minutes), friends in tow, and said his tooth fell out when he bonked his head on his friend during a soccer game. He got to go to the nurse and get a special tooth container necklace, then was able to show off his bloody tooth to all of his friends who hadn't seen it. After a few minutes another friend came running over to tell me that Luke had lost his tooth (and when I responded "I know!" He said "no, he lost it. In the grass!"), so I had to use my amazing magical mom eyes to find it in a giant pile of pine needles. 

Luke and the friend who did the honors. 

The tooth fairy also made things a bit difficult for us. After convincing Luke to put the whole necklace under his pillow so the tooth wouldn't get lost (by promising him that we would intervene if we spotted the tooth fairy stealing the whole thing), the tooth fairy folded up Luke's prize and put it inside the tooth necklace, then hung the necklace on his headboard. So at 4:30 in the morning I had a very frantic visitor claiming that the tooth fairy had taken the tooth and the necklace and left nothing in return. Everyone calmed down and went back to bed once we found it. 

It's one of Luke's gifts, I think, to make everything just a little more exciting. 

My Lovebugs

Happy belated heart day! 

Christmas at the Young Homestead

Full of: games, food, cookies, games, baby Soren, our first live hockey game, presents, and lots and lots of games (most of which were organized, begged for, and played by Luke, who put even gamer kings Ken and Uncle Matto to shame). 

Friendly Beasts

A few weeks ago Luke participated in his school concert and was asked to sing a duet with another girl from his class (he was the cow, all white and red, from the Friendly Beasts). He practiced every day for weeks (practiced so much, in fact, that Derek learned all of the words and joined in) and sang with so much bravado and confidence that his choir director had to deftly adjust the microphone away from his powerhouse lungs. Watching the recorded performance later on, he asked "Why are so many people laughing?" and answered his own question with "Oh, probably cause I was singing so loud." 

(And to keep the rest of the concert interesting, Derek used the candle they handed out as a weapon, shooting the singers in the stands and leaning over to tell me "they're dead.")