Homemade Halloween Costume (2008)

Stopping for candy at the grandparents' house

This was the first costume I ever made for Builder Boy. It is a bumble bee costume made on a black sweatshirt. I made it on a black sweatshirt because I wanted it to be warm and not be covered up by a jacket. I used cheap yellow fabric for the stripes and tacked it on the jacket, thinking I would take it off and use as just a jacket latter (I didn't.) I got a cheap, textured black fabric and made two ovals for wings that I sewed on the back (no picture, but they lay flat like a cape.) For the antenna I used the same black fabric and made two slender cylinders that I stuffed to make stiff and sewed on the hood. 

Homemade Halloween Costumes (2009)

Halloween is coming soon! I make the kids' costumes so I have to think about them ahead of time. I've posted about the costumes I made last year and two years before that. These are the costumes I made in 2009. Early Bird was a clown and Builder Boy was a cowboy.

Early Bird wore a sleeper that I already had. I made a pom pom and attached it to the top of the baby hat and tacked on felt circles.

Builder Boy's costume was a hat we already had (got it at Walmart) and a $1 bandana (also from Walmart.) I tried looking for a sheriff's badge, but I couldn't find one at the time.

Slow and Steady: Week 3

This week for Slow and Steady Get Me Ready Age 0, Week 3 we started trying to get Lady Bug to follow an object with her eyes and/or head. Our chosen object, a bunny star rattle that came with her bed did not interest her enough. We tried for several days, in different ways, but she just wasn't interested in it. She was, however, interested in her brothers' faces and followed them wherever they go. She also really likes looking at her musical Soothe and Glow Seahorse that lights up, which is an extension of Week 2. We also stretch her arms and touch her hands every day from Week 1.

We'll keep trying to interest her in a rattle or something. And once we do we will begin left to right eye movement training like the book suggests. 

Magnesium Sulfate SUCKS

Magnesium sulfate is sometimes given through an IV to pregnant women dealing with severe preeclampsia. Its purpose is to prevent seizures and strokes that are a side effect of preeclampsia and high blood pressure. It is an important, necessary thing; especially when you're going to be in the hospital for an extended time trying to give your baby a little more time to "cook."

Right before Lady Bug was born.

But the side effects are from hell, and seem pretty unfair to do to a woman who has already had a very difficult pregnancy. Common side effects include:

• Muscle weakness and lack of energy
• Blurry vision
• Slurred speech
• Headache
• Nausea and vomiting
• Flushing
• Stuffy nose

Or in my case, ALL THE ABOVE.

A headache that Tylenol, the only thing they'll let you take, barley helps. Vomiting everything you try to take in; even water. Vomiting so violently that you pee yourself a little bit (remember, you're pregnant) every time you heave. And you're too sick, weak, and dizzy to make it to the bathroom, so you have to have a nurse wipe you off. Another side effect that should be included is "loss of any dignity or modesty." I'm not sure if my speech was slurred, but I couldn't focus my eyes on anything and I couldn't hold thoughts in my head for very long. I couldn't read! "Flushing" really mean "feel like you have a fever that never goes away." "Stuffy nose" means "can't breath through your nose," which means breathing through your mouth, which is dry because you're vomiting and that just makes it dryer. Oh, and impossible to sleep deeply, even though you're exhausted and doze off a lot. Another symptom on not on the list is that it burns in your veins of the arm the IV is in.

It was in this horrible state that my doctor first told me that he wanted me to wait a week before delivering my baby. When you're in that much physical hell, dark thoughts come. Thoughts like it doesn't seem fair that you can kill your baby through legal abortion, but you can't decided for yourself when a viable baby should come out. (I am against abortion except when the mother will die otherwise.)

Thankfully your body does start to adjust. After a day and a half I could hold down fluids. After two days my headache diminished. After 4 days I could see, read, and think, though nothing complicated or long. Unfortunately you have to stay on it for 24 hours (or more!) after you have your baby. This is unfortunate because your body has to readjust and the horrible process starts all over again. Also, the magnesium does get into the baby's system and stays in it for a while afterwards and that can cause some minor issues that may delay your baby coming home right away.

I really wish someone had warned me about this stuff. I don't know what I would have done differently, but at least I could have been emotionally prepared for that hell. Principal Daddy was as supportive as could possibly be, and through trial and error, and the help of the experienced nurses, we discovered what helped with some of the symptoms.

For the burning in your arm from the meds, use hot pads to ease the pain. At my hospital they used the small packs that you start a chemical reaction in that last for just a little while. I used up so many of those that they brought out a water pad that plunged in and constantly heated.

For the "flushing," ask for a fan. A big one. And a cold washcloth with someone to refresh when it warms up.

For the headache, keep on top of the Tylenol. At my hospital I had to request the Tylenol, they didn't automatically give it to me. Make this the job of your significant other who is there in the hospital with you for the first few days. The cold washcloth also helps the headache. I found that on the back of my neck or over my eyes were the best spots for it.

For the stuffy nose, ask for a humidifier. At my hospital humidifiers actually have to be prescribed by the doctor, so ask as soon as you think of it.

For the nausea and vomiting, ask for IV phenergan instead of the pill form. I can't remember if they gave it to me at the beginning or not, but it did help near the end.

For everything else, sleep as much as possible.

If you are the significant other of the person on magnisum, here are some tips:

1. Don't take anything they say while on magnisum sulfate personally.
2. Do not expect them to remember anything said to them. Keep on top of what is going on, be the one to really listen to the doctor. This also applies to any issues with your baby.
3. Intervene and don't let visitors or callers take too much time. Yes, it's very nice they took the time but when you're that miserable and fuzzy brained you don't have much stamina for answering or talking to other people. Answer all the questions about your significant other's condition and baby's condition.
4. See if your hospital offers massages and see if you can get her signed up. 
5. Never leave. (Just kidding.) Take care of your needs so that you're not a cranky, stressed mess who's not good for anything.
6. Pray (if you believe) and if your church does it, see about getting anointed.

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Do you have other tips that can help? Comment and share!

Preventing a Fear of the Dark

This is something we started with Builder Boy and continued with Early Bird and Lady Bug:

Every time we put a baby in their own room and their own bed we walked into a dark room with them, using only the hall light coming through the door. That way we weren't turning the room light off when we left and our baby wasn't associating darkness with the loss of mom and dad/security. We did this from day one. (They also slept in completely dark rooms with no night light.)

As they got older we also avoided books and stories that are intended to "fix" a fear of the dark because we thought it would give the kids the idea in the first place. And so far, it's worked. Neither Builder Boy who will be 7 in a few months nor Early Bird who is 4 have been afraid of the dark.

Now that the boys are older we don't need to keep doing this with them. But we are doing it with Lady Bug so that she will hopefully avoid a fear of the dark, too.

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Do you have a tip that resulted in preventing a fear of the dark in your child? Comment and share!

Why We Homeschool

We homeschool our children because it is the best choice for our family right now.

Homeschooling is not for everyone. There are a lot of parents who should not homeschool their children, and there are a lot of kids that do very well public schools. This is our choice and we are grateful to have the freedom to make it. My choice for my family is not an automatic judgement of everyone else who makes a different choice.

The End

Lady Bug is One Month Old!

Isn't she pretty? :)

I've always wanted to take month by month pictures of my babies, but I was always too tired, busy, or forgot. But I spent a lot of time on Pinterest when I was pregnant and on bed rest and I was inspired by several ideas, so I'm going to try to get it done this time around since Lady Bug is going to be my last baby.
















One idea was to take a picture every month of the baby wearing a size 9 months sleeper to show them growing into it and then out of it over the year. The 9 month size sleeper is much to big for Lady Bug; it's hard to imagine her being big enough to fit it!

Another picture idea was to take a picture of the baby next to a stuffed animal for scale and to show growth over the year. I wanted to get her a special stuffed animal just for her, but the Walmart down the street doesn't sell just stuffed animals and I couldn't get out to any other stores in time. So I went with a sweet teddy bear that my brother gave my kids when Early Bird was born.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Cake

*WARNING! This is NOT an allergy free, gluten free, paleo, vegan, organic, or diet friendly cake!*

I clipped this recipe out of a magazine many years ago so I can not properly cite my source. But this is Principal Daddy's FAVORITE cake ever since I made it the first time and I've made it for his birthday ever since. This year the boys helped make it and I thought I'd share the recipe. (Text in blue are my changes.)

Makes: 16 servings
Prep: 15 minutes
Bake: at 350* for 34 minutes
Refrigerate: 1 hour 

1 box (18.25 oz) devil's food cake mix
3 eggs
1 C buttermilk (or 1 C milk and 1 T lemon juice,  let sit for 5 minutes)
1/2 C vegetable oil
2 C chopped peanut butter cups (about 8 oz,) 
       plus more to garnish 
8 oz dark chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips)
1 C heavy cream
1/2 C creamy peanut butter 

1. The first step should actually be to peel and chop the candy. Use child labor; my 4 year old actually did really well, and it's great fine motor practice! Put the peanut butter cups in the refrigerator overnight so that they are cold when you're peeling off the wrappers and cutting them. This makes them much firmer for cutting and makes less of a mess when unwrapping.
2. Heat oven to 350*. Coat two 9 in round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Line with waxed paper; coat paper. (It works fine for me when I just butter and flour the pans. With the waxed paper, the first time I made this cake it ended up with a very strangely shaped cake.)
3. In a large bowl, beat cake mix, eggs, buttermilk, and vegetable oil on low for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high; beat for 2 minutes, scraping down side of the bowl after 1 minute. Fold in 2 cups of the chopped peanut butter cups.
4. Divide batter between prepared pans. (It won't look like much batter, but it puffs up when baked. Make sure you spread the batter to the edges as it won't do it on it's own; ask me how I know.) Bake at 350* for about 34 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let layers cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Turn out cakes onto wire racks and cool completely.
5. Place chopped dark chocolate in a medium-sized bowl. Bring cream just to a boil and pour over chocolate. Whisk until chocolate melts. Add peanut butter and whisk until smooth.
6. Trim top of cake layers with a serrated knife. Put 1 cake layer on cooling rack and place on a baking sheet. Pour 1 cup cake layer on cooling rack and place on a baking sheet. Pour 1 cup frosting on top; spread evenly with a spatula. Top with remaining cake layer. Pour remaining frosting over the top, allowing it to spill over the sides. Smooth top and sides with spatula. Refrigerate 1 hour to set. Transfer cake to serving plate and garnish with chopped candy, if desired. 

Per serving: 470 calories; 30 g fat (11 g sat.); 8 g protein; 44 g carbohydrate; 2 g fiber; 365 mg sodium; 62 mg cholesterol. 

Organic Stand Mixer (I grew him myself!)

Organic Mixer Cleaner

Workbook Review: Follow the Directions & Draw It All by Yourself!

Last month I got paid another $11 from my Amazon affiliate links (thank you, everyone who purchased something on Amazon.com after clicking on one of my links!) Scholastic recently had another sale so I spent $10 on 10 ebook versions of their workbooks to enhance or add a different dimension to our school year. One workbook that we've already started is Follow the Directions & Draw It All by Yourself! I come from a family of artists (my great grandfather was a commercial artist, my great grand mother was an amazing painter, and my oldest brother is very talented.) I, however, did not get the accurate drawing gene. Despite an art class in middle school, I'm pretty terrible at it. It is not something I can teach my kids to do on my own, so I was very happy when I saw this workbook.

What I liked best about the idea of this workbook was of the kids following the directions on their own. There is no reading involved; rather they have to use inference to determine from the example pictures what need to be added with each step. There are teacher instructions that can be given verbally, as well as expansion activity ideas for each picture. I'm not using those. What I have been doing for a week now is to print out a copy for each boy and put it on the table for them to find in the morning. Then, when they come down and get themselves breakfast they also have this activity that they have to figure out on their own. It started out with simple apples and balloons and has progressed to a ladybug today and will get more and more complex as they progress through the 25 pictures.

Builder Boy's ladybug on the left, Early Bird's on the right.

Builder Boy has done quiet well and Early Bird is trying his best with some pretty good results sometimes.

When we are finished with this book I am going to start them on another following directions workbook that I got at the same time; that workbook contains written instructions, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Slow and Steady: Week 2

This week was perfect to start on Age 0, Week 2 in Slow and Steady Get Me Ready. (Here's a link to Slow and Steady on Google Books for a preview of some of the activities.) This week is about interacting with light with your baby, giving them an awareness, and seeing if they move to look towards light. Before now Lady Bug avoided light and closed her eyes every time we turned a light on when it was dark in a room. But this week, since she's been more awake at times, she has started looking towards the bedroom window with light coming through while on my bed. I haven't used a flashlight in a darkened room yet as when our rooms are dark, she's usually (hopefully) asleep.

We are also continuing the movement activities from Week 1, as well as my own "Mommy Has, Baby Has" activity mentioned in that blog post. This week she rewarded our efforts to teach her to reach out and touch us by reaching out and touching Builder Boy! (I think she likes him better than she like me.) It was really sweet and whenever he is in her sight range she moves her head to look at him. They certainly have a special connection, which is beautiful to watch. Today she reached out and touched me, too, on the face, so I don't feel so left out.

We are also trying to make sure she has a few minutes of Tummy Time every day or so. Yesterday she pushed up and rolled over to her back, but I'm not counting that as "official" yet.

Slow and Steady at the end of Week 2 also reminds parents to introduce their babies to music, through humming, singing, or playing music. The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer recommends singing the ABC song every time you change their diaper, just to be in the habit of it. For those who don't like to sing often, I have a playlist on Youtube of my favorite Piano Guys music for babies. Lady Bug seems to like them, and the boys love watching the videos, too. In fact, the video with the open piano had Builder Boy asking how many stings are in a piano (it varies by the type, but there are many more than I thought, according to this Piano FAQ site.) It inspired us to get out our Story of the Orchestra book.
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This blog post contains some Amazon affiliate links and some non-affiliated links. The link for the Well Trained Mind is to the author's publishing company's page. The picture here is to the Amazon.com listing. Pictures of products are also Amazon links.

I don't get paid for reviews; all opinions are my own.

Lady Bug in Doll Clothes

I realized two weeks ago that Lady Bug was probably small enough to fit in my American Girl Doll's clothes, but she wasn't awake for long enough to try. Today she's been awake a lot, so I tried and they still fit! Here she is dressed in Josephina's first outfit. It will be fun someday when she's old enough to play with the doll to tell her that she was once so small that she fit in those very doll clothes.

Slow and Steady: Week 1

I purchased Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June Oberlander sometime when Builder Boy was around two years old. It is a really cool concept, with an activity to teach your child something using (ideally, but not always) household items. There is an activity for every week of life starting at birth and going to the child's 5th birthday. I never did every week's activity with Builder Boy, but rather picked out what activities I liked, and used it to give me a good idea of what was developmentally appropriate. When Early Bird was born, there were so many things going on with him being in the NICU, and then just dealing with being home with an undersized newborn and a two year old that the book got forgotten about. But I always loved the idea of it, and I've got one last baby here, so I'm going to try to go through the book's activities week by week with Lady Bug.

This is the week that Lady Bug was supposed to be born. That puts her gestationally at 0 instead of negative numbers. I guess I had forgotten from when Early Bird was a preemie, but the nurses told us that preemies need 22 hours of sleep a day. Which means if she's not eating, she's usually asleep. I have to admit, it makes her pretty easy to take care of most of the time. Aside from the fact that her tummy is so small that she was hungry every 2.5 hours in the beginning (including the night time.) I am not sure when her waking time is going to be extended, but this past week she's had 30 minute times of being awake once a day, so now seemed like the perfect time to start.

Builder Boy and Early Bird have been so looking forward to teaching their baby sister how to do things. Early Bird started singing the ABC song to her when she was still inside me. Now that she's out he's been demonstrating things to her like finger spelling signs and how to sit down and stand up, not realizing that she can't see that far away from her. He's convinced every time she makes a fist that she's signing "a." So I decided to get the boys involved and let them "teach" the book with me.

Age 0, Week 1 is just about observing your baby's movements and helping them come to awareness about both sides of their bodies. The boys tried to get her to grasp their fingers (something they've been all about since they met her.) Then, with my guidance and supervision, they took turns bringing her hands together, and then stretching out one arm or leg at a time. We will do this for 5 minutes a day for this week.

I have also been spending some time with my face close to hers and moving her hands to reach out and touch my face. I also do something I call "Mama's Face, Baby's Face." While saying "Mama has a nose" I touch my nose; then I say "and (Baby's Name) has a nose" touching the baby's nose. I repeat that with ears, eyes (I touch the corners of the eyes,) cheeks, chin, and mouth. This is something I did with Early Bird (I can't remember if I did it with Builder Boy or not.) I do the say order every time I do it so it not only teaches the names of the parts of the face but also teaches the baby to anticipate what will happen next. Early Bird loved this and would open his mouth really big when it was that part of the routine.

Thoughts about C-sections

No one in my very large extended family has had severe complications during labor, had premature babies, or had to have a c-section. I was the first (and so far/hopefully, the only.) That kind of makes me feel like I lost the genetic lottery, though I know that's not what it's about.

Me and Builder Boy (2006)

My first emergency c-section was a complete surprise. It all happened very quickly and I only remember a few things about it. I remember that Builder Boy's head was bigger than they expected and the doctor had trouble getting him out so he pushed down on my rib cage/lungs for leverage which made me feel like I was being suffocated. I remember that they almost left the operating room without letting me see my baby, until I said something. And I remember waiting for what felt like forever, without my baby, in the recovery room alone while a nurse would come in every once in a while and push on my just cut opened and sewn closed abdomen and asked if it hurt. (It did!)

In my postpartum room there was another woman who had just had her 3rd c-section. She was very nice and talked to me, though I never saw her face or learned her name. She is how I learned that after you have one c-section you're more likely to have following births as c-sections, and that there are risks for attempting a vbac (vaginal birth after caesarean.)

When I became pregnant for the second time my husband and I researched vbacs and prayed about it. We decided that the best decision for us was to attempt a vbac. However, that's not how things turned out, and I required a second emergency c-section. I remember very little about that one, too. I remember the anesthesia they used to block feeling in my lower half didn't work, I could still fell the test pinches, so they kept giving me more and more of something; not sure what. Having had the previous experience (at a different hospital) I made sure ahead of time that they would remember to let me see my baby before they took off with him. And I am really glad I did, since I was so sick afterwards from all the extra anesthesia that I was too sick to get out of bed and see him in the NICU for over 36 hours. (And it felt MUCH longer than that.)

So when the time came around and my husband and I were deciding whether or not we wanted to have a third child, we knew we had to factor in that I would be having another c-section. We had decided before the 2nd one that we were willing to try a vbac then, but not a vba2c if that didn't turn out as planned. I had gotten through two c-sections, so I figured I could handle one more. I've heard about pregnancy hormones that give you amnesia about your birthing experience, so you're more likely to do it again, even if it was really painful and awful. This is the only thing I can think to explain why I thought a third c-section would not be a big deal; complete amnesia. Because this time around my mind felt like a video recorder. I still remember everything; those forgetting hormones didn't kick in this time. And if I hadn't been completely sure after this pregnancy that this would be my last time, going through that c-section would have convinced me.

Me and Lady Bug (2013)

I'm not trying to scare everyone away from c-sections. I really understand the importance of them. But as I was on the operating table in the cold, sterile room I felt I was living the definition of  the word "splayed." (The image of Mel Gibson at the end of Braveheart comes to mind.) It was so impersonal and even though I'd done it before, this time I was afraid. I held my panic in but all I wanted at that moment was to call it all off and attempt a vba2c. Anything but be cut open, vulnerable. Maybe it was the hormones, maybe it was emotional exhaustion from being in the hospital on magnesium sulfate for a week. I just did not want to be there, doing that. But I did it, because I had to. At least this time around I got to watch my baby and hold her while I was in the recovery room before she started having problems and had to be moved to the NICU.

My recovery was even longer this time, partially because I had to stay on the magnesium. I also had some internal bleeding or something that required a transfusion two days after the surgery. Getting my tubes tied while I was already open may have also extended my recovery period. I couldn't have made it through the first week home if my mother-in-law haddn't come up to stay with us and help.


I wrote all that out for those who are researching caesarean sections and want to know what it's like on a personal rather than clinical perspective. I do NOT recommend an elective c-section if there is no medical reason to have it. I would much rather have pushed the kids out (though I am saying that having never done it.) I rather envy my friends who went in, had their baby, and were out the next day.

Workbooks as Year End Testing

With our last half of our 2012-2013 being more un-schooling than anything else, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when this weekend I told Builder Boy he was finished with 1st grade and was going to be a 2nd grader and he didn't really seem to think anything of it. At least Early Bird was excited to hear he was finally a kindergartener, though he worried about how that would effect his placement at kids' church. (We place him there by age rather than grade, so it won't change.)

Last year at the "end" of Builder Boy's kindergarten year I got a kindergarten skills workbook to see how he did in comparison to public school standards and to check for gaps and weaknesses. It actually taught him some things that I didn't think to teach him, so I was doubly glad we did it.

This weekend we got the 1st grade workbook for review for Builder Boy and I got the LeapFrog Kindergarten Skills workbook for Early Bird since he loves LeapFrog so much. We started doing some yesterday and all ready I've realized that while un-schooling worked for science, history, and reading, it did NOT work for handwriting. I think Builder Boy has forgotten the "correct" way to write at least half of the letters. And a page of just addition or subtraction problems was something he was NOT used to and felt overwhelmed by. Our chosen math curriculum has been much more hands on manipulatives and very little writing and no worksheets like that, so it was definitely a new experience for him. Early Bird did just fine on his pages, though he got tired of the color by number page and didn't finish it.

So to get into the swing of a more structured schoolwork routine before our official year begins in the fall, we will finish our current workbooks and then move into others that I have on hand. The timing all depends on when Lady Bug starts sleeping long enough for Mommy not to be completely exhausted during the day.
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The picture of the workbook we used last year is an Amazon affiliate link. The LeapFrog link is not.

Preemies and Car Seats

We had already had a preemie so we thought we knew everything we needed to know about preemies. We were wrong.

Apparently a lot of car seats are only rated safe for babies 5 lbs and up. And if you have a baby coming home who is less than 5 lbs and your car seat is a 5 and up one the hospital will not do the car seat test with your baby and they will not let you come home with her until you have one rated safe for 4 lbs and up. Our last preemie was 5 lbs when he came home, so this didn't come up last time. But it did this time. So we ended up having to buy a new car seat instead of using the one a friend had given us.

My advice to parents: if you bought new, don't take the car seat out of the box until you're at least 36 weeks (and hopefully your baby won't be as small as mine) and keep the receipt. If you bought used, reserve some money for this just in case. Or you can just make sure your car seat is rated for 4 lbs and up and not just 5 lbs, thought I've been told that those might be a little bit more expensive and harder to find, as most infant car seats are only rated for 5 lbs and up. We managed to find one at Walmart for less than $80. I really prefer the thicker head support on the one we got than what usually comes on infant carriers.  Looking at Amazon.com, only the Safety 1st car seats like the Safety 1st onBoard 35 Infant Car Seat are rated as safe for 4 lbs that are under $100.

Added later: I'd like to say a few words on the term "car seat." When I see the two terms separately, I think of the seat that comes as part of a car. When I think of the thing that you add on top of a car seat for babies and children, I think of it as one word: "carseat." Spell check, however, does not approve of that term, so I changed all the red squiggliy underlined words to something it didn't protest. But in my heart, it's a carseat. Maybe I should have just used the term "carrier."
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I am not paid for reviews (unfortunately.) All opinions are my own. This post contains Amazon affiliate links. The Walmart link is not an affiliated link; I put it there because the carrier is cheaper at Walmart than on Amazon.com.

Big Brother Builder Boy

These are some stories and pictures of Builder Boy and his baby siblings.

At the NICU with Early Bird, little kid siblings were not allowed in the rooms with the babies. So the first time Builder Boy (who was two and a half) met Early Bird was when we brought Early Bird home, almost two months after he was born. He had been practicing with a baby doll how to hold and be quiet and gentle around babies. When we let him "hold" Early Bird for the first time he tried to pick him up and put him in the baby seat that he had been putting his baby doll in.

This is a picture of them on Mother's Day, just a few days after we brought Early Bird home.


As Early Bird got bigger and a bit less "breakable," Builder Boy wanted to help out. He was allowed to do a few things, well supervised of course.

I even let him help feed Early Bird once.





The NICU that Lady Bug was in let the boys visit and meet her before she came home. The plan was to take them in one at a time. We took Builder Boy first. He was immediately entranced by his baby sister. When Daddy asked him what he thought of her, Builder Boy whispered "she's beautiful!" We let him stick around for about 10 or 15 minutes and then we told him he needed to go back to the waiting room with his grandparents so his brother could have a turn to meet her and he started to cry. Not a tantrum; he just buried his head in his daddy and tears dropped down his face.We decided to let him stay and Principal Daddy went and got Early Bird so that he could meet Lady Bug, too.

Builder Boy hung around while Early Bird and then Nana and Apa all got to meet Lady Bug. He was quiet and good, mostly just gently touching and adoring his baby sister. He had only one request: to hold her. We made that happen.

Every day since Lady Bug has come home Builder Boy has held her and fed her (with supervision and pillow support.) I've taken about 20 pictures of the adorableness that is this kid's love for his baby sister. Here are just a few more.

Lady Bug holding Builder Boy's finger