Jayson, Karissa, A Little Guy, Jane & Ruby: Things I Want to Remember

After having our little guy for a while I started to realize what people really mean when they say that kids change so fast and time goes by so quickly. I feel like he has learned SOOO much since we've had him and I wish I had written more down about him. I've come to discover that one of the things I fear most is forgetting things. I don't ever want to forget how his voice sounds or how he sings Disney songs or how he mispronounces words. He's getting so much better at pronunciation, which is good...but it also breaks my heart! I LOVE the way he says things incorrectly. Is that weird?

And now that we have a newborn I can see it even more. She's already almost outgrown a couple of her newborn jammies. What?! More heart breaks over here! I'm so afraid I'll forget her facial expressions, the way she smells, the way she cries, or how it feels to have her all snuggled on my chest.

So, I just wanted to take some time to write down some things so that I can hopefully remember.

Our little guy:

He's always said "Ga" for dad and it's one of my favorite things ever. He calls Jayson "Ga Jayson". And it's just the best. And one day he started saying Dad and I thought my heart was broken forever. But, for whatever reason he still refers to Jayson as "Ga Jayson", but when he's referring to other people (Mainly Mufasa or King Triton) he'll say Dad or Daddy.
He loves babies. He's been SOO sweet with Jane. He's constantly trying to help. He's always bringing her a binky, he always wants to pour the formula mix in the bottle, he asks to hold her all of the time, and he's so soft with her. He's just a big sweetheart.
Even though he loves Jane he did have a really hard time with the attention being drawn away from him at first. I think it was a mixture of that and us being gone for a while when she came. He was very needy, moody, only wanted me to help him with things and no one else, etc. But he seems to be doing better every day. (Our little Ruby has been having a hard time too!)
He continues to be a snuggler. I hope I never forget what it feels like to have him snuggle with me in the chair before bedtime.
The way he says "sure". It's just the cutest.
He calls Jane, Dadey Dane".
He has recently started to want to tell us about things. He went to the zoo with Jayson's brother, his wife, and family and he jabbered on about it for the longest time. It was so cute.
When he watches movies he acts them out, which is the funniest thing ever. Also, I used to do that when I was little, so it makes me so happy.
His laugh is the best, even his fake ones. I hope I never forget how it sounds.
He has started saying "ready" instead of "reay". Again, my heart is broken.
His eyes will melt anyone's heart. Sigh!
He's been saying "I love you" to me randomly and it just melts me into a little puddle.

Jane

The girl loves to eat, which is great because the nurses in the NICU were worried the first day because she wasn't so great at it then. She mainly only gets fussy when she's hungry, although she has started being fairly fussy after she eats sometimes. We think she may have some gas problems or something, poor girl. (TMI?)
She has recently decided she likes to wiggle. She doesn't like being swaddled as much. It's so much fun to watch her learn how to work her little fingers. I hope this doesn't mean that she's not going to be a cuddler though!
She has very long fingers and toes.
When she was born she had the funniest little ear. It was all smooshed and the curves in it were so big! It's starting to stretch out now and look better, but I'm going to miss that smooshy ear.
She does not like those little mittens used to prevent her from scratching her face and has learned how to get them off by herself.
She seems to be a stubborn little girl
hates having her diaper changed
She also hates being burped for whatever reason...maybe because it interrupts her eating?
She also sneezes a lot of times in a row and every now and then she won't get the sneeze all of the way out and she makes the cutest little wheezy noise.
I never want to forget how tiny she is right now and how tiny she was when we first held her. I look at six month clothes and I can't imagine her ever being big enough to fit into them, but then I look at pictures of her first few days of life and I can tell that she's already gotten bigger! My little heart!
She smiled at our little guy the other day because he was playing peek a boo with her.
The loves to be held out and swayed.
She also loves her swing.
When she's calming down she does this cute little cry. I can't even explain it but I am so afraid of forgetting what it sounds like.
I think she's just the prettiest and most perfect newborn babe that there ever was.

Also, I never want to forget how it was to watch Jayson fall in love with this sweet baby girl. She had him wrapped around her finger from day one and it has been the sweetest to watch. He always wants to hold her after work and he doesn't ever complain about helping out with her, he's always happy to do it. It's also been so sweet to see him form a bond with our little guy. He's such an amazing "Ga" and my heart seriously melts when I see him with these cute kiddos.

And since everyone has been asking, yes. I am tired. But I've found that being sleep deprived is like riding a bike, once you've done it you remember how to do it again. I've had a fair amount of experience in the sleep deprived department. All of those sleepovers with my dearest friends in high school, the late nights during Frehsman year, and the early mornings when I was a baker prepared me well for this business. I've done this before, so I've got this. Seriously though, it hasn't affected me as badly as I thought it would, which is really good news. I was worried. I really like my sleep. Everyone keeps asking me how the transition has been and it's honestly been fairly easy. I feel like the transition from going to no kids to one kid was a lot harder than going from one kid to two. Is anyone else with me on that one? I was already over the initial shock of not having "me" time anymore and the fact that you never really get a break from this parenting thing. I had already been baby sitting a little boy in our neighborhood, so I was sort of used to two kiddos anyway. Newborns are definitely a whole new ball game that I've never played before though, but I feel like I'm really getting it. My house is a disaster basically all of the time, but I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job at this mom of two thing. Sometimes it is SOOO hard and frustrating. Sometimes all of the days blend together and I can't ever remember the date or the day of the week. In a way it reminds me of when you're on vacation and you lose all track of time and days and it makes me smile. It makes me smile because these things don't matter all that much, especially since we have a newborn and we aren't taking her out much for a while, so it often doesn't really matter what day it is. It can be hard at times to feel stuck in the house, but the introvert in me is actually rather enjoying having an excuse to not leave my house or participate in regular society for a while. And all of the trials that come with being a mama to these kiddos feels like the really good sort of trials. You know, the kind where at the end of the day you feel like superwoman because you endured well. Am I right? I relish in that sort of thing.

I'm so grateful I have these kiddos right now and I'm grateful I get to be with them everyday. It's true what they say; all of the hardships of parenting are worth it. I can't get enough of holding Jane and snuggling with her and watching her discover the world. I can't get enough of our little guy and the funny things he says, the sweet things he does and the snuggles that he gives. Being a mom has honestly been the most challenging job that I've ever had, but it is also my favorite job I've ever had.

On a different note, I have seriously been amazed at how quickly you can love such a tiny babe. I just love her with all of my heart.

Random facts: Jane's birthmother is 1/8th Swedish and so is Jayson.

In February 2010 we started trying to have a baby again after our miscarriage and thus began our long road of infertility. In February 2012 we decided that we were going to stop doing infertility treatments and start the adoption process. In Februray 2014 our beautiful baby girl was born.

I also don't want to forget all of the kinds words and thing that people have done for us. We have felt truly humbled by the love and kindness that has been shared with us. So many people were there to support us during our trial of trying to start our family and so many have rejoiced with us because of these two miracle kiddos. We've had people bring us dinner (relief society friends and others), we've had people bring gifts for out little guy as well as the baby so he didn't feel left out, we've had flowers, and millions of kind words and congratulations. When we came home from the hospital we found our house decorated in "it's a girl!" things, our house had been cleaned and we had a new pack and play, swing, baby bath, and bouncer. My heart has been so full because of all of the amazing people in our lives.

And now I shall post pictures. I just went through all of the pictures on my phone and transferred them here and I am seriously dying to show you a picture of our little guy because he cracks me up so much and is such a cutie.

The Grandma's meet Baby Jane:

I can't get the following few pictures to be right side up, so just pretend!

This is such a Jane face. She makes it all of the time!

I've been having such a hard time keeping up on house work. I looked over from the kitchen one day this week and I realized it's ok that my house is messy. I'm having fun with my kiddos while they're still kiddos. I realized I actual want to remember the days when my house looked like this.