$1 = 30 minutes of blogging time

This morning is DRAGGING! I know I'm supposed to be resting since I had a baby only 9 days ago, but seriously people!!! This day will never end if I don't do something. The other day I bought William a bag of large Lima beans and today I pulled it out. Aaaahhhh ... quiet time I love you. William has been playing for at least 30 minutes. He is making a huge mess in our parlor, but the beans are really big and won't take long to sweep up. I had to take some pics to show you all.

He spent a lot of time putting them in the blue water bottle

 

Then discovered it would fun to spread them out everywhere

He was such a goof pretending to eat them

And maybe he really DID try to eat them

But ultimately spit them all out. :)

Post about William

 Daddy and William got to spend lots and lots of time together in the last week. It was a very nice honeymoon period for our whole family. William is absolutely a Daddy's boy. I think it was a great blessing to William to have his dad all to himself while mommy was resting and bonding with baby Anna. Everyone has been asking how William is adjusting to a new family member, but mostly he ignores Anna. He looks very concerned when she cries and will often try to put her paci in her mouth .... and besides the occasional kiss on her head, he leaves her alone. I think he has had a much harder time with Mommy. He pushed me away every time I came near him for the first couple of days. Even if he was hurt and I ran to him, he still cried harder in my arms and begged to be given to Isaac. It was a little sad for me and made me anxious to have Isaac go back to work so I could have MY little boy back and wanting me. :)

Anyway ... Isaac is back at work today. So I thought I'd post some of their fun moments.

William plays with our phones ALOT! 

Did I mention he likes playing with our phones? 

 IT SNOWED!!!! This would be the first time William plays in the snow. He has only seen snow once before when he was a baby. I'm not sure he liked it a whole lot. He couldn't move in the suit and his hands got very cold.

 And AGAIN .... playing with a phone. :)

Daddy took Will to the Children's Museum one day and came home with these pics. 

AND ... Here are some pics with William paying attention to Anna.

 

Nursery

I should have posted these a while ago. I spent most of December getting Anna's nursery stuff ready. She gets one corner and William gets another. I chose the dark blue and yellow because William already had blue in his nursery theme and I wanted them to look good together in the same room. I never thought of myself as a polka dot kind of person, but I fell in love with this fabric from Pillow and Maxfield. I had found one yard of it in Norfolk, but it took calling every fabric store in an hour radius and finally reaching the designer herself before I was able to get more to finish my idea for Anna's room. Anna Maxfield was so so kind to me as I called her number and emailed her exactly what I wanted. She went far out of her way to get this fabric to me and only charged me half of what she should have. I am so thankful and I love how it turned out. I incorporated the polka dot theme with my wall hangings made with buttons and embroidery hoops as well as the appliqued quilt to match the fabric for the bumper pads. I hope you enjoy my work!

And now with baby girl in her bed!

Family of Four

I can't tell you just how excited I am to be a family of four. I love that we have two kids. When we had William, we fell in love with being parents, but something was missing. We immediately wanted more ... more of the cuteness ... more of the smiles ... more little babies. :) So we were ecstatic when we found out Anna was going to be part of our family. I am really looking forward to growing as a parent and loving on two children. I think we are going to have a lot of fun this year. :)

William loves putting Anna's paci in her mouth

First family photo

I'm a mom of TWO!!!!

We could barely get William to stay still and happy for pictures. So we took some while he ate. Needless to say ... It was naptime!

She's Here!!!

Anna Grace Spencer was born on January 18th at 4:23am. I'm so glad she is here. I'm not pregnant anymore and labor is over. Of course I'm not sleeping, but I don't mind. I feel great and I'm so in love with my little growing family.

First Mommy Daughter Pic

Uncle Phil came to say good bye to me at the hospital and got to meet Anna. She barely made it in time for Phil to watch William for us. But it all worked out and we are so thankful for Phil coming to visit!

 

 Anna started sucking her thumb only 10-20 minutes after she was born. This girl LOVES to suck!

Going home! The pic on the left is Will's first view of his sister.

Will kept looking over at her on our ride home.

Going home outfit

More Mommy Guilt

We had our first failure as parents of two this morning. Last night in an effort to get Anna back to sleep so we could get sleep, Isaac turned on a sound machine as put it right near us. It worked fabulously for Anna and Isaac and I got the sleep we wanted. But we woke up late to William screaming in his bed for us. It was much later than we normally wake up and who knows how long William was trying to get our attention. If that wasn't enough for me to feel guilty about, I soon heard piercing screams coming from William's room when Isaac went in to get him. He had discovered that William had been sitting in a poopy diaper and had the worst rash ever. William was screaming like I did when I was in labor.  I just kissed him and cried with him as Isaac inflicted painful wipe after painful wipe to get the gunk off of William's skin. I felt like (and still do) a complete failure. I prioritized Anna's sleep (or ultimately mine) over being able to respond quickly to my son's needs. 

I'm sure William will never remember this. His skin is healing quickly and already diaper changes are not as painful as that first time this morning. But I feel broken. I didn't expect to struggle with two yet. I thought I would gradually give up feeling like I was in control at all times. But it has hit me suddenly that having two children multiplies my need of a Savior in my life and my need for my children to have a Savior.