Time Continues to Fly

Did two months honestly just go by!?!?!? Guess that is what happens when you have a newborn. Wish me luck in my attempts to summarize the past 55 days. The thing I hate the most is that I miss all the funny little things that happen in our day to day lives....espeically with this postnatal brain of mine.

Alright, so most of February was spent with us getting to know Matthew. Luckily we find him to be an exceptionally cute baby, so we have excused his bizzare sleeping patterns. For the first month, Matthew was on some form of a 48 hour schedule; he would sleep for almost 48 hours straight (waking up to eat) and then would be "Mr. Wide-Eyes" for the next 48. It seems we have been successful in getting him on a more regular schedule, but once in a while he likes to slip into nocturnal mode.

One of the things I missed while Matthew and I were in confinement, was the school fair. I actually like going to that - despite the intense heat, sweaty bodies, and long lines. It is so worth it to see how much fun the boys have. Scott went solo this year with the boys. It sounded like they all had a blast. From the reports I heard, the favorite activity of the day involved giant plastic balls the boys went in and then could run on the water. From what Scott said, they waited almost an hour in line to do that one. I was also informed that Scott ran out of money at some point and Andrew had to spot him a few bills. Luckily our six year old wanted to bring his wallet.

March was definitely a BIG month for the family. Wish me luck in getting this chronologically correct. The month started off with Andrew discovering his love for legos and Jacob attending his first pine wood derby ever.

Seeing as we do not live in the U.S. of A., Scott and Jacob did not have access to the general pine wood derby supplies one can find in any local hardware store. Needless to say, we were pretty sure Jacob's car would have a rough go of it from the get go. In addition to the derby, Jacob also had a championship game for soccer, as well as his opening baseball game all in the same morning. In order to accomodate all these various activities, Andrew and I went to the derby while Jacob played in his soccer game. When he finished, Scott and Jacob flew up the the derby which had been delayed by an hour and a half. The two of them got to watch the first heat before Jacob had to head off to baseball. So, Andrew and I had the wonderful experience of sitting through a three hour race car competition. Having sat through the entire pine wood derby, I have a few observations.

(1) The dads were WAY more excited about the cars than the boys.

(2) I am quite positive less than 2% of the boys were even allowed to touch their car at any point in the creation process (minus the token photo op with the boy holding "his" car).

(3) The boys had no interest in the race half way through the first heat. I came to this conclusion when I noticed all the scouts huddled around a TV that was playing "Finding Nemo" for the little kids.

(4) The pine wood derby is to fathers what weddings are to mothers.

(5) If your son is one of the 2% mentioned in #2, he will come in second to last place.

About a week after the pine wood derby, Jacob received his Bear Cub badge. Unfortunately, Scott had to go on a business trip and was unable to attend. Therefore, that is why you will see a very large me along with Matthew (located in the blue sling I am wearing), painting the markings on Jacob.

The day after Scott returned from his business trip, we were lucky enough to have his parents and four of his siblings come to visit us for Matthew's blessing. It was an enormous sacrifice for his family to come out, and we were so honored and thankful they were able to be here.

Matthew's blessing was beautiful and he was a very good baby through the entire prayer. Though, true to form, he passed gas right when it ended.

After visiting Singapore for five days, the Barlows all headed to China. From what I heard the trip was a blast.

April has been a painful month. On the third, I received a phone call that a friend of mine, Michelle Dimond, passed away in her sleep. Michelle was a great friend and left behind six amazing children. Needless to say, it has been hard to go through this experience.

In family news, Andrew lost both of his front teeth within two days of each other. Sadly, the first one went down the drain, and the second fell out while he was at a friend's house. Luckily the tooth fairy still came. (Though I think she may have ripped him off in comparison to what Jacob got for his teeth. Sometimes it's hard for her to keep track).

Good-bye tooth #1 . . .

. . . and good-bye #2 (don't know what is up with this facial expression).

I am limited with how much time I can spend writing this, so I am going to have to wrap up. Let me just say, Matthew is a sweet, darling baby. While he may not be the best sleeper, he always greets me with a smile (even if it is at 4 o'clock in the morning). Honestly, we are so blessed to have this little guy in our lives. Cannot imagine life with him. I thought I would end with just some pictures of the kids over the past two months.