Emers Takes A Step Up To Two

5/27/14

Emerson,
      You have grown so much this last year. This last year you have done a great job at keeping up with Coleman and doing most everything that he does. You decided you liked sleeping in a big bed with Coleman and so you did for about 6 months. Luckily we got you off the binky before Cooper was born. You sure loved that thing. You still get the hiccups when you laugh. You love to eat and eat and eat. I am amazed sometimes at how much you can eat and the things you will try. We often hear you say, "I want some," whenever someone is eating. You love Poppy's egg sandwiches. You enjoy making a mess when you eat l but you always want your hands wiped clean. If I don't get up quick enough in the mornings, you are in the kitchen searching for food and climbing up on the counters. Gum is one of your favorite things. You search through Grandma's room and purse as well as all my stuff to find it. Amazingly, you can chew gum for hours and then when you're done you either spit it out in the trash or hand it to someone. I have to say that you are a responsible gum chewer. I haven't done as well teaching you the ABC's or your numbers as I did with Coleman but you have caught on to many letters and can count to 10. I believe this is from listening to Coleman. You know your shapes as well. You like Woody and Jesse from Toy Story, love Thomas, Mater from Cars, and you like Curious George. You always say cheese for pictures and crinkle your nose. You are continuing your tendency to always have scrapes, bruises, or injuries. This year, you fell out a 9-foot window and hardly cried. You are my tough little guy. You enjoy playing in the dirt. You are my early riser. You usually are up between 6:30 and 7 am. Most mornings I would find you with only one sock on. I couldn't figure out why you only always had just one on. You like babies and were excited to have a baby brother. You enjoy "Tooper" and ask to hold him. Two seconds later you state that you are done. You are a busy body and don't sit still very often. You like to dance and skip around the living room and will run around on your toes. You enjoyed going to nursery this year, especially because Coleman was in nursery. I found out after you had been in nursery for months that you didn't say much which surprised me because you say a lot. You become shy when you are first around people. You are getting better. You love the park and ask to go there all the time. You are still learning to listen but have been getting much better that last few months. Spankings don't really effect you. You hate time out in your room though and that has worked well. You are good at helping me do things and especially when it's just me and you. You love being outside. You always want to know where your "brother" is when you can't find Coleman. I believe you are going to be an aggressive little wrestler in a few years. You are a little small for your age but that doesn't make a difference to you. Something that you often do is tilt your head when you ask people questions and it's too cute. I wish you could stay my little boy forever. I love you Emers.

Love, Mom

Bumps, bruises, and scrapes

Another injury

And another one...

Moab

Emerson: First Birthday!

My dear little Emers,

   I don't really know where this past year went. I feel like you skipped infancy. You were crawling at   6 months and pulling yourself up at 7. Before I knew it, you were trying to take steps! You started walking at 9 1/2 months. For quite awhile there you had a hard time not running into things or falling into things and you ALWAYS had a few big bruises on your head. You have quite the pain tolerance and amaze people with it. You are a very loud little guy. You're always making noises and yelling just because you can. It used to really bug Coleman and he would tell you to stop yelling. I think he must be used to it now. I'm amazed at all the different sounds that you can make. You're very good at clicking your tongue. You've been able to tell me what a snake says for a few months now. You've been learning more animal noises and are much better with them than you are with words. You do say "hi" very well though and often catch people off guard as they walk by. You can also say "cheese, da (dog), du (duck), boo (book), Jesus (sounds like cheese)", and our favorite "oh ya!" You used to sign for milk but now you refuse to use any signs and yell instead. You also stomp your foot when you do this. You can eat and eat ALL day! We're not sure how. You're very independent and hard to feed at times. I'm learning to deal with this better. You love watching Coleman and doing everything that he does. He can make you laugh more than anyone else and it's been like this since you were about 4 months old. I hope you two will be close in spirit all your lives. Even though you are younger, at times you have a leadership quality to you and Coleman is doing everything that YOU do...like getting into the toilet and making a big mess of things. You are definitely a busy body and sometimes it's hard to keep up with you. You love love books especially if it's just me and you and Dr. Seuss. You have to be the one to turn the pages. You have an interesting relationship with dogs. You love them and are terrified of them at the same time. It just depends on the moment. Your dad always says that you have no fear though. You really like to snuggle...for about 3 seconds. Often you are found hugging my legs wanting me to hold you and as soon as I pick you up, you have decided you want down. You have been giving kisses for a long time now and are very good at puckering up and giving them. You love cars and trucks and little teeny objects. You have great fine motor skills and like to put little objects into another object and then take it out again. You do this over and over and over. That's about the only thing that gets you to sit still for very long. You take great naps and sleep well. Your have deep blue eyes with long, handsome eyelashes. You're my little toe head. You have the cutest little teeth and you crinkle your nose when you smile. I love you very much and I look forward to this next year but I hope it goes by much slower than the last. I love you Emerson. 

Emerson Graham Beynon

Emerson was due June 4 but I was hoping he would come over Memorial weekend. No school or work on Monday for Jesse, my mom was supposed to come up that weekend and I was ready.  As the weekend got closer I got crankier and less convinced that he was going to come then.  I had gone from feeling like I was going to have him any day to this-little-guy-is-going-to-be-in-there-a little-longer type of feeling. Saturday morning Jesse and I went and cleaned the church building. I don't know but maybe that's what got things started. Service=blessings right? I felt pretty good the rest of that day, just tired and antsy. It rained all day and I just wanted to get out and do something before I would be cooped up in the house for awhile. I had no  idea that would come sooner than later.  Jesse and I stayed up late watching a movie. We went to bed around 11:00 pm. I don't think I ever really fell into a deep sleep. I was in between that place of sleep and awake for awhile thinking that my abdomen hurt. At about 12:45 Sunday morning I became fully awake and acknowledge that I had cramps. I told Jesse I thought that I was going into labor.  I wasn't sure if I really believed it. With Coleman my water broke, so there was no question. We decided to start timing my cramping/contractions. They hurt but were definitely bearable. They lasted about 2 minutes with 3 minutes in between. They didn't seem too consistent. I decided to get up and Google contractions since I couldn't remember the timing of labor contractions. By the time I found what I was looking for and made it back to my room they were a little stronger. It was now 1:00 am and I felt like that's when things got rolling. We slowly started getting things ready. I called our friends and had them come over to stay with Coleman. During all this I became quit convinced that I was definitely in labor. We checked into the hospital a little after 2:00 am. After about 30 minutes of questions the nurse checked me and I was dilated between a 6 and 7. The contractions didn't feel too great at this point and I was now getting them in my back. We went to the delivery room and I used the rest room. I noticed I was bleeding some and asked the nurse if that was normal. She said it could be, just depends. I wasn't quit sure what that meant. She decided to check me again and I dilated to a 7 and was bleeding quite a bit with each contraction. This is about the time the Doc arrived. The plan was to skip the IV like I did with Coleman but since I was bleeding heavily the nurse stuck me. I could tell the nurses and doctor were a little concerned but were trying not to show it. They wanted to get things rolling which luckily they did. Pretty soon I was a 10 and the doctor broke my water. I started pushing and I have to say it was harder and much less enjoyable than the first time around. Oh yea, Jesse about passed out unexpectedly from seeing all of the blood (normally he's not bothered by it). Luckily for everyone's sake he didn't. I pushed about 5 or 6 times and we had little Emerson at 3:07 pm. He came just in time. The placenta started detaching a little too early hence all the bleeding. Emerson was 5 lbs 7 oz and 19 in long. He was very healthy, hairy and had all fingers and toes accounted for :). They figured he was probably a little earlier than 8 days, more likely about 3 weeks. Jesse handed me our little guy and as he did, he gripped Jesse's finger tightly. He was so little and precious. I feel very blessed to have good pregnancies, labors and deliveries as well as babies.

He's my little fuzz ball.

Brothers meet.

Coleman came to the hospital Sunday evening. He wasn't too sure what to think. He loved Emerson's onsie that had various balls printed on it. Coleman kept pointing to them and saying "ball". He also loved the buttons on my bed. He gave Emerson a poke or two and giggled. It was pretty cute.

First family picture.

Emerson is a good little baby. He's been gaining weight well despite how often he spits up. Anytime he gets the hiccups he loses about everything he has in his stomach.  I also have to watch what I eat (dairy, spicy, garlic) because that seems to add to him losing his lunch too. He is a loud little guy. He makes a lot of noises; mainly grunts, snorts and something that resembles a goat.

Coleman is acknowledging "Brother" more and more and has agreed to holding him twice within the last couple of days. He loves stealing Emers's binky and at times will try to shove it back in his mouth. Coleman also loves throwing things into the bassinet. Luckily we haven't had too many accidents. Slowly but surely our family is adjusting to a new member in the family. I love my boys and my dear husband who helps me with so much and is a fantastic father. We are blessed to have such a great leader in our home.