3 weeks

Hard to believe that Marcus has been part of the family for 3 weeks now. He's meeting all the milestones of newborns- eating, pooping, sleeping, crying. Not necessarily in that order. He loves his bouncy chair, soft blankets, snuggles, and looking at lights. Not overly fond of baths, diaper changes, and siblings that are still learning what an inside voice is. My favorite is when Elena gets two inches from his face and yells "baby asleep", which she quickly amends to "baby awake".  

Tenth Anniversary Camping Trip

Karen and I decided to spend our tenth anniversary camping with two screaming kids. Actually, it was a lot more fun than we anticipated.

We left Friday afternoon and made the two-hour drive in just over 4 hours. Thankfully, we borrowed my parents' camper, which worked out really well for all of the stops we had to make along the way.

On Saturday, we went to a nearby hot spring. We had the place to ourselves because most people were still in bed that early in the morning. This was a really nice hot spring with two rock-and-mortar tubs.

 We spent quite a bit of time riding around on our new 4-wheeler. Can you guess what that is strapped to the front of the 4-wheeler?

 Sprout decided not to nap on Saturday, so I took her for a ride while Karen and Marcus slept. This is what Karen saw when I came riding back into camp.

 Here are a couple of elk that we saw on one of our rides. They were lying down about 40 yards away, but took off running when I undid the Velcro on the camera case. We also had a deer in camp briefly. I say briefly because deer apparently don't like two-year-olds chasing them and yelling "DEER" at the top of their lungs.

Finding a secluded camping spot can be tough in popular areas. This weekend we discovered a foolproof tool for guaranteed seclusion. His name is Marcus.

 On the drive home, we got stuck behind a caravan of super-slow campers in the canyon between Banks and Horseshoe Bend. I was getting very frustrated, as we were running out of precious silent time from the kids. As we headed up HSB hill, I went for the big pass. The Dodge was purring and we were flying past the RV caravan. As I passed the second RV, I heard some rustling in the back seat, followed by, "POTTY! I NEED POTTY!" I repeated George Carlin's seven words repeatedly under my breath.

Parenting tip: When you see a mosquito buzzing around, don't slap it and yell YOU BASTARD in front of a two-year-old. Second tip: When your kid mimics you doing something they shouldn't do, don't laugh hysterically.

Two Weeks

Marcus is now two weeks old. Most people say that the second child won't get much time in front of a camera. Most people are right.

This weekend we're planning to go camping near McCall. Wish us luck!

Picture Worth a Thousand Words

Pictures

There has been some whining from blog followers because I haven't posted enough pictures of Marcus. I normally ignore whining, but since I took a bunch of pictures over the past couple of days, here you go. First, my parents came over to meet Marcus.

 

 

 I call the next one "Attack of the Lion." As you can see from this picture, Marcus is over a year ahead of Sprout in hair development. He's still not Alice though.

 

 You will be seeing more of the lion in the future. Here is a better one for scale.

And here is the "Other One." A quick side note on the other one: that was how the doctor who delivered Marcus introduced herself. Karen's normal doctor was out of town, so his wife delivered instead. She walked in, waved, said "Hi, I'm the other one," and went to work.

 

 Yesterday we went for our first huge outing with Marcus...down the street to see Karen's parents. Here is cousin Alex hanging out with Marcus.

 Great Grandpa Earl watched him for over an hour while Karen and I took a break. I kept asking him if he was tired of watching Marcus and he basically told me to go away.

 Overall we're doing great. Well, Karen is a zombie, but the rest of us are doing great. We're hopeful that Marcus will learn that nighttime is for sleeping sometime soon.

Big Sister

Elena had the opportunity to meet her little brother yesterday after she woke up from her nap. She was more surprised to see her mom wearing "clean" pants in bed than she was about the screaming infant. Karen is all about finding the perfect pair of scroungy pants and riding them out until they really don't qualify as pants anymore.

This morning when Elena woke up, the first thing she wanted to know was where the baby went. When I showed her where he was, she proceeded to "read" him books for most of the morning.

Meet Marcus!

Marcus decided to show up this morning on his due date, which also happens to be D-Day. The labor seemed to take place at about the same pace that the allied soldiers stormed the beach at Normandy, but at just over 1.5 hours, it was shorter than most reenactments of the attack. I was still filling out paperwork when I overheard the nurse say, "Don't push, I'm getting the doctor!"

Marcus weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and is 21 inches long. He has dark hair and sleeps a lot. Everyone checked out fine, and we are home about 11 hours after leaving the house this morning. I'm proud to say that we were much more organized for Marcus' birth than we were last time - we even took baby clothes and a car seat with us.

Here is a picture of Marcus undergoing the waterboarding procedure - at least that's what he seemed to think of it. I will post more pictures and provide updates later, but for now I need a nap.