Mormor's handy work

Look at this beautiful hand knit outfit Mormor made for Kristian!!!! He looked like such a big boy sitting up in our rocking chair!

Tummy time

Like his sister, not a huge fan of tummy time but we still manage to get some in each day.

Kristian 3 weeks

Our little guy decided to wake up and see the world this week...well at least for 10 minutes every hour or so. He is awake more often now and is really starting to interact. His smiles are so cute (and hard to catch on camera) and he is holding his head up so much. He likes to look at lights and mirrors and still doesn't mind kissing ALL OVER him :) :) We have put him in the baby gym thingy and he really seemed to like it at first. He actually was batting his hands at the dangly animals and then after 10 minutes or so, he was ready to be done with it. He is still eating and sleeping so well...he is sleeping a 5 hour stretch and then a 4 hour stretch (10pm - 3:30/4 and then again from 4:30 - 8 am or so) so no complaining from me :) :)

Mormor is here!!!

Mrs. Thiele came to help out and she has had her hands full with Kaia and the baby. I have been able to go to doctor appointments and get things done around the house and have some peace and quiet too!!! Here are some photos of this past week!! Thank you Mormor for all your help :)

Kristian's 2 week appointment

In a way I can't believe it has been two weeks already and on the other hand, I feel like it has been months since I have had him because my body feels SO MUCH BETTER! The first 10 days after the surgery were very hard and painful. The stairs in our house were really tough on me and the pain was intense but WOW, what a difference another week makes! Besides being able to pick up Kaia and go running, I am pretty much back to feeling almost normal :)

At Kristian's 2 week appointment he had gained his weight back and was 2 ounces above his birth weight...9.7 lbs. He had grown half an inch (21 3/4 inches) and his head was 37 1/2 cm around! The doc said he looked GREAT and seems to be right on target for a 2 week old...eating, sleeping, pooping - and that's about it! He was in the 74% for weight, 86% for height, and 61% for his head circumference.

Our observations:
HE IS WONDERFUL! I hesitate in writing this because I am scared to jinx it but he is so great. He doesn't make a peep. Half of the time I have to wake him up at the 5 hour mark in the night to feed him and when he wakes up, he just stirs a little and grunts a tiny bit and then he eats and falls right back to sleep. He is so laid back and mellow and LOVES to be held but doesn't fuss when he is put down. Kaia kisses him all over his face and he doesn't seem to mind...in fact, he doesn't really seem to mind anything. He is LOVING bath time right now and just lays there and relaxes while the warm water is being poured over him. He is starting to smile a lot more. He knows his momma :) by her voice and looks around to find me (which I love!!). He is starting to stay awake more and more. He doesn't seem to be ready for rattles and dangly things yet. He is so content just looking at the world around him. Wanting to take our time and not over stimulate him, we are not pushing or rushing anything (especially because this is our last one)!!!
His appearance is changing a little bit. He still looks like Kaia sometimes and other times we all see a lot of my looks in him. It will be interesting to watch him grow and change!

St. Paddy's Day LOVE

First off, big thank you to my girlfriend Carrie C. for the ADORABLE St. Paddy's Day outfits for both the kiddos...what a fun gift!
We did a little photo shoot and I am just way behind on getting them on the blog! Hope you enjoy, they just melted my heart :)

Just some random cuteness

Like I said, behind on posting...here is a hodge-podge of cuteness from our home this week :)

Future Fighting Falcon??

Of course Baby Kristian received some Fighting Falcon gear from his Mormor and G-pa!!! He looked so cute in his get-up we HAD to take some photos!!!

The last two weeks....

I am REALLY behind on posting pics so get ready for the influx :) We have some how managed to continue Kaia's crafts even with the excitement of a new baby in the house. Here are a few from the past two weeks. Since Mimi was here, most lessons were followed up with baking yummy treats in the kitchen!!!

Marshmellow Rainbow





Letter of the Week - Ss







Shamrock - St. Paddy's Day





HANDmade butterfly

Paparazzi

Kristian was a little worried that we wouldn't have as many pics of our second child as we do our first...boy, was he wrong!!
Here is a slideshow of baby K and Kaia admiring him (notice the red book in her hand in the pics...she carries it everywhere. It is "I'm a big sister now" - she LOVES it). Excuse the same photo over and over, Mormor wanted some close-ups so here they are :) :) It's hard to catch him with his eyes open these days so most are sleeping pics.




Comparisons....
Here is Kaia at one week and below is Kristian at 10 days....see any resemblance??

More Papi time

So sweet! Papi is going to miss you baby K!!

And then there were three grandkids....

Big Sister Love....

Kaia has been so sweet to her little brother! She constantly asks where he is and if she can see him. She says, "love baby kristian" over and over and is always so sweet and gentle giving him kisses on his head and face. We can only hope she stays this way :)

Papi and Kristian

I have often found Papi this week early in the mornings or in the afternoon when things are quiet holding and staring at his new grandson. Here are some precious moments I have captured this week!

Moustache March is Here - ugh!

Don't be expecting any professional family pictures until April (when the moustache is GONE!!!!) Oh, fighter pilots and their traditions!!!!

Fun, Fun, Fun

Kaia has been having so much fun this week. Mimi and Papi took Macey and Kaia to the Lied Children's Museum on Thursday and then to TGIF for lunch. She enjoyed exploring all the exhibits and even got to share an ice cream sundae with Macey at lunch...gotta love the grandparents!!



On Friday the girls got another special treat and visited the M&M Factory downtown and even got souvenirs. Kaia came home with a YELLOW M&M purse and Macey got a key chain and special straw cup! Then they had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe which is one of Kaia's favorites! At this rate Kaia will be wanting a new sibling every year :)

This one is for Mormor

One of Mormor's favorite baby clothes stores is Pumpkin Patch. If you follow this blog you probably already know that from all the cute outfits Kaia receives from that store! Well, Baby Kristian debuted his very first "patch" outfit yesterday and I have to say, he looked pretty cute :) Here he is after his bath in his new digs!!!




Mormor also found this adorable flight jacket at the Air Force Academy and had custom patches made for it. It looks so cute hanging in Kristian's airplane themed room and I can't wait until he is big enough to wear it. With that being said, his father wants to note that he will not be wearing the weapons school patch. His remark last night as we were checking out the jacket, "he will get to wear the patch once he has earned it". Are you kidding me??

Macey meets the SNOW...

Since Mace has never really seen snow before, Kristian and my dad took the girls sledding yesterday at Mt. Charleston! I wasn't there but the stories and the pics tell a story of fun and laughter! Of course, when Macey walked through the door and mom and I were trying to get her to tell us about it, she kept saying, "it was great, WHERE IS BABY KRISTIAN"? I guess fun in the snow was no competition for a new baby for her to hold :)

Dad and Mace Arrive

My dad and Macey (my 8 year old niece) arrived late last night so when Kaia woke up this morning she was SOOOO thrilled to see her cousin and her Papi. They have been playing together non-stop and Kaia will not let Mace have a moments peace. She has to be exactly where Macey is! They have left to go sledding up on Mt. Charleston so hopefully K and Papi will bring home so fun pics!
Dad and Mace were so overjoyed to meet Baby Kristian. You could see the pride in Dad's eyes as he held his first grandson. He has been waiting for a boy in our family for a looooong time so it was so fun to see him interact with the baby! He is already talking about taking him to the deer lease and baseball games! This week will be very special for him :) As you can Macey is in love too! She loves holding him and I catch her humming to him and kissing his little forehead, it is so sweet! She gets very antsy if he starts to fuss. She calls out to us, "hurry, I don't want him to cry". She is just a nurturing little girl and it is so cute to see them together!

A special day for Kaia

Yesterday K and I took Kaia to the park, just the three of us. I really felt like she needed some time alone with just us. Although, I am still really sore and uncomfortable, I managed to hang at the park for an hour or so. It was really windy yesterday (a little too windy for kite flying) but I was SO impressed at how well K managed to fly the kite. His response when I told him, "wow, I didn't think you would be that good", he said, "I'm a pilot Lesli, of course I can fly a kite". Ooops, I didn't know one translated to the other??? We had so much fun spending time together and I really think it helped her to cope with all the new things she is dealing with!!

Kaia and Daddy

As you can imagine Kaia is even more attached to her daddy this week. In the past two weeks the two of them have enjoyed a lot of time together. They have gone hiking in the snow at Mt. Charleston, hiked up Lone Mountain and had a picnic together, gone to her favorite "animal" store to look at the animals (Sportsman Warehouse), and made several trips to the park and around the neighborhood together to walk Sadie! Of course I always ask if he wants to take the camera but it somehow gets left at home. I did however catch them the other day prior to leaving to go hiking.

What a Blessing....

We feel so head over heels this week to have Baby K in our lives. He is such a good baby so far :) As you can see below he LOVES his vibrating chair! He is already starting to smile at us a little and his smiles in his sleep are so pricesless. He even giggled in his sleep this morning.
Kaia is so loving towards him and says 100 times everyday, "love baby kristian", "bless you baby kristian", "see baby kristian". She hugs him and kisses him and says, "Kaia good big sister". It is so cute! I will be honest, she has had a couple tough moments making for a harder day here and there. She normally is not affected by us telling her no, she just moves on to something else. A few times this week, us telling her no has turned into an all out crying-fest. She is very sensitive to any scolding she receives from mom or dad and has asked for "binky" on more than one occasion. She seems to be working through it and is soooooo happy to have her cousin Macey here now! She is very distracted and we feel like this will be very good for her!!!

Kristian's Birthday and First Few Days

March 3, 2009 - Kristian's BIG Day
We left for the hospital at 5:30am, by 7:30am I was in the OR getting prepped and by 8:05am - HE was here!! He weighed 9 pounds and 5 ounces and was 21 inches long.
Dr. Scherm did an amazing job and the surgery was so easy! I was so surprised especially after everything that I went through with Kaia! K and I bet on how big he was going to be and of course I won. I bet 9 lbs. 1 ounce and K bet 8 lbs. 11 ounces! We were a little shocked to hear how big he was since he looked so small to us. I guess we forgot how little Kaia was too!
I was in recovery for only 30 minutes and they quickly got me back to L&D where I got to hold Kristian for the first time. He was so sweet and nuzzled right up next to me! We both can not believe the resemblance between him and Kaia. They look exactly the same and all I could think about was day one with her as I held him in my arms! After a few hours, Kaia went to play with her friend Reese and my mom was able to come up and meet her new grandson. Due to RSV restrictions Kaia was not allowed in the L&D Ward so she had to wait until the next day to see her baby brother (which broke my heart).







Baby Kristian - Day 2
Kristian did so well night 1. We had to wake him up to eat every time. He loved snuggling close to mom and even slept with dad for an hour or two. He only cried when they would come in to test his blood sugar (apparently with BIG babies they do this every 2-3 hours for the first 24 hours). Kaia was so excited to come to the hospital. She brought Mommy some balloons and enjoyed seeing Kristian through the nursery window. She kept signing and saying, "baby hat", "baby sleep", "baby brother", "baby Krisitian". We were all doing so well they actually released me and Kristian to go home at 2:30pm - only a day after the surgery! Since I got no rest with all the nurses coming in the night before we decided to go home and see if that was better! We were so glad to be home and so happy that we were not away from Kaia for too long!! Mormor was also able to drive up from LA and she got to see her grandson when he was a day old. She stayed for a few days and was extremely helpful with Kaia.
When we were ready to go home, Kaia was anxiously waiting in the waiting room and was so excited to see him. The four of us rode home together as a complete family...it was so special and a little weird too :)




Day 2 - Getting Home




Day 3
I have to admit, I was shocked to realize how much pain I was actually in once all the pain meds from the hospital wore off. I am moving a lot slower than I remember and it is difficult for me to get up and down. This makes things hard when I really want to be 100% for Kaia. She is doing a good job of understanding and having patience with me. Thank goodness for percocet and motrin :) :) Kristian has been AMAZING! He is so quiet and calm, we all forget he is here *this is the baby obviously). I am still having to wake him up in the night to eat. He sleeps for 5 hour stretches at a time and is so cuddly and loving. We still think we are dreaming when we wake up each morning feeling rested and look over and he is smiling in his sleep. We are HOPING this is a sign on things to come. We had our first doctors appointment today and Kristian had lost a whole pound so he was 8 lbs. 5 ounces. Since this was more than 10% of his weight we have to go back tomorrow for a weight check. Unfortunately, my milk is still not in so we had to start supplementing with formula until it arrives. The doc said the last place we need to end up right now is the ER so he is loving the tiny bit of formula he is getting. So far, no problems going back and forth between the boob and the bottle!



Day 4
Mommy is still sore but getting better. Kristian is still sleeping, sleeping, sleeping and had gained a couple ounces at the doctors today!



First Bath



What has Kaia been doing?
Kaia has been SO LUCKY to have Mimi here to keep her entertained. When Mimi got here they picked right up with her normal craft and she got to make a counting cupcake craft and then REAL cupcakes!! She had such a good time helping in the kitchen and then had cupcakes for dinner :)



Once Mormor got here on Wednesday, she really didn't know what to do. Her two favorite people at the same time! Her two grandmothers played with play-dough, took her to her gymboree class, played dress-up, did puzzles, etc. She has been so busy that she forgets we have baby Kristian here! We do make sure she still gets her mommy and daddy time in the evenings and daytime so hopefully this will make the transition easier for her...we'll see!




Some comparison photos

Kaia - 5 minutes old













Kristian - 5 minutes old
















Kaia - hanging with dad for the first time
















Kristian

















Kristian - first hospital bath














Kaia
















Kaia - ready to go home













Kristian
























Kristian - first bath at home













Kaia








PRECIOUS MOMENTS

Kristian Samuel Thiele

Kristian Samuel Thiele was born at 8:05am on March 3, 2009. He weighed 9 lbs. 5.4 ounces and was 21 1/4 inches long. His head was 14 inches in circumference. The surgery went GREAT and we were even allowed to come home the next day. Mom is quite sore and recovering well and baby is sleeping and eating beautifully! Kaia is figuring out the big sister gig and we are all happy to be together and getting to know our little guy! As you can imagine, I have a billion pics and they will eventually be posted. As for now, here are a couple of our favs...

12 hours to go....

Honestly, could my belly be any bigger? As you can see I am "ripe" as one older gentleman at the grocery store just HAD to tell me today (first off, don't tell a preggo lady that and second, REALLY KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT if you are MALE!!!!). I think people thought I may have him right in the middle of the aisle as they were moving their baskets away from me like I had the plague. Something unique to this pregnancy, SO MANY people have not asked me what I am having rather told me, "you are having a boy right?". Then they proceed to tell me, "he is all out in front" so that is how they know (my opinion is quite different :) )! It has been interesting (and annoying) to hear all the funny remarks from strangers but only a few more hours and we will get to meet the little guy causing all the commotion! THANK YOU to everyone who has called, texted, facebooked, and emailed all your warm wishes and prayers! I am so lucky to have such loving friends and family! Look for baby Thiele pics soon :)

MIMI'S HERE!!!!

WHEW HOOOO!!! Mimi (my mom) is finally here!! She has come to help us out with the arrival of our little guy on Tuesday!! I have actually slept every night since she arrived and Kaia, of course, is so excited to have her here! She won't let her out of her sight, which is a nice break for me :) Here are some fun shots of the two of them sharing loves!!

Last Weeks FUN and learning

Monday - "Stegosaurus" - lessons - colors, dinosaurs, animal sounds, counting (clothes pins), signing
Activities - books, dino- matching, dino- make believe (okay, so we crawled around on the floor pretending to be dinosaurs)



Wednesday - "Shape Sailboat" - lessons - shapes, colors, signing, counting
Activities - books, guess that shape



Friday - "Fuzzy Caterpillar" - lessons - colors, textures, counting, outside fun
Activities - book, song

Baby Dance

First off, a BIG thank you to Carrie Bemis for sending Kaia "Baby Dance" for her 2nd birthday! It has been a HUGE hit in our house for a long time and I am finally capturing some photos and video of her doing it! She does it at least once everyday and even when it isn't on, she is saying and doing the dance moves throughout the day!! Here are some pics from the "cowgirl" part and as you can see I have not found her a cowgirl hat yet so she improvises and uses Kristian's rugby hat!