We still take naps around here

Although you may see two little boys above, the real person getting some rest here is me!

Remember how energetic Alvin is?  Well, it's definitely coming in handy these days.  He can supervise his oil wells for a couple hours in the middle of the night, wake up at 6:30, work all day, then come home and play with Miles and hold Clay.  My knight-in-shining-armor's best weapons?  The pacifier and the iPad.  I love you, dear!

What Miles says . . .

...when he's hungry:  ||:  I want some raisins and some cereal and some marshmallows and some nuts and some p-butter balls and some cheese and some dates and some apricots.  How 'bout alla dos? :||

...when Clay is crying:  Put the pass-fier on that baby!  He's cryin'!

...when I'm crying (because Clay is crying and Miles is hungry):  I want give you a hug.  You a lil' bit happy?

The Little Toddler That Could

Miles has been watching the 2011 animated version of "The Little Engine That Could."  It's about a train, so of course he loves it.  He randomly quotes lines from the movie, complete with inflection: "We can't just leave them!" and tells me about the characters: "Richard, the real boy, and the 'cary' [scary] train."

The other day we were out for a walk, and Miles was riding his new bike from Santa.  When we came home, I assumed he would jump off the bike and let me push it up our steep driveway.  Instead, Miles kept pedaling while I pushed his back.  As we started up the hill, Miles chanted, "I tink I can, I tink I can, I tink I can."  I almost burst out laughing.  It was cool that he applied something he had seen in a movie to his own life.  When we got to the top, he said, "Look!  Made it to the top!"

Welcome, Clay

Here is our sweet little baby boy!  Clay Steven Anderson arrived Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 2:53 pm.  He weighed in at 7 lbs 9 oz and measured 20 inches long.  The middle name "Steven" is after my dad, and "Clay" is after, well, we just thought it was a good name: simple, easy to spell, not too common, and starts with a strong, hard consonant.  Plus it's a geology name, like Miles. :)  Plus we have a pretty cool friend named Clay, too.

Clay is a pretty easy baby.  He sleeps, starts to wake up and get fussy about every 3 hours, eats, then falls asleep again.  He's the first of our family born outside of Utah; we're interested to see what an Oklahoma birth certificate looks like.  As soon as we brought him home from the hospital, we had to buy some actual "newborn"-sized clothes.  (Miles was only that small for about a week!)

Alvin took a few days off work to help at home and hang out with our new addition.  Miles is enjoying extra daddy-time (including trips to the park and zoo), and I'm enjoying asking Alvin to do the dishes and pick up clutter while I lay in bed, sit on ice packs, nurse Clay, or try to satisfy my suddenly ravenous appetite.

Birth day?

Today I am 41 weeks and 6 days pregnant.  Since people seem to think you combust at 42 weeks, I scheduled an induction for today.  Can I just say how extremely NOT happy I am about being induced?  This decision has caused me a great deal of turmoil and fear.

However . . . the stars and planets must be aligned, because exactly one hour before leaving for that appointment, I started labor at home.  Maybe we'll get to meet that baby today!

TBD

Maybe this baby is waiting to be born until we choose a name for him.  We have it narrowed down to four for the first name, and we picked the second name.  If you ask Miles, he would say, "How 'bout Train Anderson?"

Estimated Due Date

Miles is is bed, Alvin is reading the news online, and I'm not in labor, so I think I'll post a few pictures of our lovely trip to Utah.  My sister Amber got married December 3rd, so it was the perfect excuse to visit our families, who we've been missing.

Utah is much colder than Oklahoma, but we brought enough warm clothes to go for a little hike/walk.  My Aunt Rosie was in town for the wedding, and since she's been taking a geology class, she requested Alvin lead a geology "field trip."  He did great, and it reminded him how much he likes teaching people about geology.  Miles was happy to find some tractors at one of our stops.

Here come Brian and Amber out of the Salt Lake Temple.  Don't trip over Miles' blue Dinoco car!  He borrowed it from Aunt Ann and wouldn't let it out of his sight the whole trip.  I loved Amber's dress, and I cried through the wedding.

Here we are at the reception.  Oma brought a new toy for Miles: a red tape measure.  He asked me to lay on the floor so he could measure the baby in my tummy.  Guess who's been coming to prenatal appointments with me :)

We made a quick stop to visit Miles' old friend Ella and her brother Calvin.

The whole trip was really very nice.  It was sooo good to see our families and take a break from work, fixing the house, cooking, and being in charge of Miles.  He had so many attentive relatives doting on him that I got to really relax.  Also, Miles loved playing with his cousins and their toys.  It made me sad to think that he is missing out on that while we live so far away.