Caroline Comes Home!

Here she is!

Miss Caroline is 12 days old today, and it has taken her mom, dad, and big brother Sam a while to string together enough spare moments to upload all her pictures and do a blog post. Her adoring fans will have to accept our apologies. Hopefully a post full of pictures of this sweet face will make up for it!

Caroline came home from the hospital on Easter morning. Chip and Phy brought big brother Sam to the hospital so that the four of us could ride home together as a family. I must admit it was a very sweet ride home :) Here's Caroline saying goodbye to the hospital and wearing the adorable "Easter bonnet" that one of the very thoughtful nurses at Baptist South made for all the Easter babies.
First moments at home...

Sam has been SO GOOD with her. He gives her lots of hugs and tries to share his toys, rocks, and food with her, and is learning that he has to do so VERY GENTLY. :) He already loves her and wants to help take care of her. What a relief! We couldn't be any prouder of this little man and how well he seems to weather every transition...especially this life-altering one!

Since we came home on Easter morning, one of our first orders of business was to check out Sam and Caroline's Easter baskets! Sam got lots of things for playing outside...a bug net, his very own watering can (he loves to water the flowers), some seeds to plant, bubbles, sidewalk chalk...and LOTS of Play Doh! Caroline got a Sleep Sheep, some pacifiers, and a baby book :)

We had one day at home just the four of us, and then Nana and Papa came to meet Caroline and provide some much needed help! Caroline started her first full day at home with a long, long nap...

Then she and Sam spent some time snuggling with Papa.

The whole family took a trip to the park, where Caroline and I chilled in the shade while Sam played on the slides and showed Papa the sailboats. I am feeling about a million times better than I did at this point after my last delivery, and it is SO NICE to be able to get outside and play with both kiddos so soon.

Just a couple more sweet photos from Caroline's first week at home...

We celebrated Caroline's one-week birthday by having CamiCakes with Nana, Phy, and Aunt Meredith. Guess who liked this birthday celebration most?...here's a hint :)

Sam had never had a whole real cupcake before, and after the way he reacted to this one we may not let him have another one for another few years! He was CRAZY! He had a blast playing, though, and we all enjoyed celebrating one wonderful week with Caroline.

Nana left late Monday night, but not before she got a few last snuggles with both grandkids!

And now it's just the four of us. We're doing pretty well so far...just very tired! We feel so tremendously blessed to have such a sweet little family, and we just can't wait to watch these two grow up together. There are so many adventures in our future, and we just couldn't be more grateful.

Caroline is Here!

Caroline Ray Tousey made her entrance last night, April 22 (Good Friday!) at 8:05 p.m. At birth, she was 7 lbs, 3 oz, and 20.3 inches long. She is beautiful and sweet and sleepy, and loves to snuggle as much as her brother Sam does. Mom's labor and delivery went much more smoothly this time with no complications, and both mom and baby are doing very well and getting some rest today. We can't tell you what a relief this is to us!

The whole family was together this morning, and there is nothing sweeter in the world to these two parents than seeing our two kids meeting each other for the first time.

At first, Sam didn't seem to know what to make of her. In recent weeks, he's known that he's going to have a baby sister, that her name is Caroline, that she was in Mamma's belly, and that when mom & dad went to the hospital, she would come out of Mamma's belly and come to live at our house (and that when all this happens, he and Annie get to go stay at the beach!). Despite this knowledge, though, I don't think he really knew what to picture, so it was very sweet just watching him trying to figure out who she was and where she came from!

Caroline gave Sam a present when he came to the hospital - a book about being a big brother, a Big Brothers Rule t-shirt, and Lightning McQueen PJs. Sam proudly put on his Big Brother t-shirt, and Caroline rocked her Little Sister onesie. Here they are posing in their gear (which, of course, you can't see in the pictures!).

After a few minutes, Sam seemed to fully adjust to the idea and couldn't get enough of looking at Caroline...

And giving her hugs and kisses!

We'll get to go home tomorrow, so we will be able to celebrate Easter as a family. We can't wait!

We feel so blessed and overwhelmed with love for these two little ones. Our family feels complete, and we are just so, so grateful. We wish all of you a very happy Easter and thank you all for all your prayers and thoughts and well-wishes. We love you all!

Clay, Tracy, Sam, Caroline, and Annie

Just Waiting...

Just five days to go until our due date, and still no signs that Caroline's ready to arrive. We had another great weekend, though! We're so glad that we got all our house projects done early in the year (during the cold months!), because it's given us lots of time to just have fun with Sam here at the end of the pregnancy while the weather is fantastic.

Here's a very sweet picture of Sam and Dadda enjoying some reading time...

And here's Miss Caroline at 39 weeks and 1 day. Quite a belly, eh?

I keep hearing that second babies usually come earlier than first babies, but Caroline only has 2 1/2 more days to make good on that promise! I'm getting SO anxious to meet her...I'm not doing a very good job of being a patient Mama this go-round :) No way of knowing whether she'll decide to arrive early, but we found out today that we're on the schedule to be induced next Monday if she hasn't arrived by then...so, one week from now we'll have a new snuggler no matter what!

We'll keep you all posted. Lots of love to all!

Everything's About to Change!

We're now 10 days away from my due date, and while I'm getting VERY antsy to meet this little girl, we're also enjoying some sweet time with just Sam. He is too cute for words. My two favorite developments of the last week or so:

(1) He likes to "read" his favorite books by himself. This consists of flipping the pages and roughly repeating the story he's heard us read before. It's amazing how good his memory is - he remembers chunks of the stories almost word for word - but it's hilarious to hear him emphasizing all his favorite parts and mixing things up in cute little ways.

(2) He now likes to report to us when he's exerting his mental and physical energies. He'll be sitting there (working SO HARD) putting together some huge Lego contraption, or trying to carry 12 rocks at the same time, and he'll look up and say "Sam - work hard!" Where did he get that???

Here are some sweet recent pictures of him at his favorite "boat park." Pointing out the boats...

Caroline at 37 weeks (somehow I'm already a LOT bigger a week and a half later)
Here's sweet Sam playing in his kiddie pool. He likes to swim, but he likes getting splashed even more!
I love this Snuggleman!

A fun little weekend

I promised some cute pics, and here they are! For starters, look how much this little man has grown in a year! We took this first picture about 11 months ago when we first planted this dogwood in our yard. Here's Sam at about 10 months...And here he is at almost 21 months! I think Sam is definitely growing faster than the tree...

As we head into the final couple of weeks before Caroline arrives, we're trying to spend plenty of time just having fun with Sam. He's starting to understand the whole baby sister concept. He knows his baby sister is in Mamma's belly and he knows her name is Caroline ("Caa-line"). He knows that pretty soon Mamma and Dadda will go to the hospital (hilariously cute word to hear him say...something like "op-it-el") and he will go stay with Chip and Phy at the beach. Today, I explained to him that Annie would go with him to the beach to see Chip and Phy, and he asked a very sweet question: "Sister come beach too, pleeease?" Hard to explain why she has to stay at the hospital instead!

Anyway, Sam had a great weekend. On Saturday, he had a playdate with his sweet friend Liza. They had a grand ole time playing in Sam's new big boy room with all the toys, the basketball hoop, and the golf set. On Sunday, he got all dressed up for church and even modeled willingly for the camera!

After church, we took Annie and Sam to the park for a couple hours, then came home and washed our cars. Sam was a huge help!

And then he decided it was time for "Sam. Bath. Bubbles. Bucket!"

So fun! And last but not least, here's a sweet pic of Sam and his favorite friend, Annie. Poor Annie...she's put up with a lot of pulled hair, yanked ears, and food being dropped on her head in the last 21 months, but at least she's now getting lots of love and attention in return!

Happy Monday to all, and have a great week!

Thankful

We have some new pictures to post, but those will have to wait. For now, we've just finished reading through our friends' recent posts from the last week or so, and are just struck by how blessed we all are and how much we - and so many of our dearest friends - have all grown since becoming parents.

Sweet Henry Hathaway made it through heart surgery like a little champion this week, and while we know it's such a blessing his condition was discovered early, we just can't imagine how hard the last couple of weeks have been on his mom and dad. It takes becoming a parent to know just how scary that kind of news must be and how scarring that kind of experience must feel. We breathed a huge sigh of relief this week, and now we are celebrating along with Katie and David and Henry and Cohen as Henry recovers like a trooper!

For other friends, the last few weeks have been exciting and life-altering in other ways...Brady is walking now, and the Brennans are moving back to Charlotte to start another chapter in their life with little Evan. And Frazier is cute as ever, pulling up and making sweet faces for the camera, and enjoying more time with her dad, who no longer has to commute 2 1/2 hours everyday! And so many other friends' families are growing and charting new paths everyday.

And life has been exciting and full of change for us, too. We've had a little bit of a false alarm/ scare with Caroline the last couple of weeks...the docs have been worried that she's not gaining weight, but we now know she's A-OK and should arrive healthy and happy sometime in the next four weeks! Sam is in the sweetest, happiest phase, and our hearts melt over and over again every time he does something new or especially sweet or especially surprising. It's literally like falling in love for the first time over and over again, several times a day.

I can't imagine anything more incredible, or more challenging, or scarier, or more perfect than being a parent. And today I'm feeling especially grateful for all these healthy, happy, kiddos, for amazing families and loved ones who provide support and love and prayers, and all these incredible friends to go through this amazing stage of life with.

Finally Finished!

After several weekends of house projects, we're finally all done! Sam is in his BIG big boy room with all his boats, Caroline's room is ready for her arrival, and our (much smaller) guest room is ready for Nana and Papa...or anyone else who wants to come visit!

In addition to the great room switcheroo, we've gotten (or adopted) a few new furniture pieces and new rugs in several rooms, moved lots of art around, and created lots of new storage solutions so we finally have a place to put away all those TOYS!

Yes, I had a major case of "nesting" with this pregnancy...but I knew from experience that whatever we didn't do now, we wouldn't be able to do for a couple of years!

We love the finished product(s) and are now ready to relax and enjoy our new house for a few more weeks...until a new baby turns it all upside down! :)

Nana and Papa's Visit!

Nana and Papa came to visit Sam this weekend! He had so much fun, and hasn't stopped talking about them in the day and half since they left. We had a great weekend...Sam showed Nana and Papa all his favorite things. We made several trips to various parks, played with every toy in his big boy room and play room, rode his tricycle and pulled his wagon up and down the street to the River, and even drove out to the beach for a shower for baby sister Caroline. He has grown a lot since they saw him at Christmas, and he's talking so much more, too. They were very impressed when he showed off his hilariously cute though barely recognizable versions of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and "Letters-Song" (that would be the A, B, C's - but Sam calls it "Letters-Song").

Nana and Papa got to be here for Sam's first REAL haircut (I'm pretty sure my attempt to cut his hair with crafting scissors doesn't really count). He was SO GOOD...I was really amazed...shocked, really. He was so fascinated by the whole process it never occurred to him to jump out of the seat and run all over the place!

On Saturday morning, Sam took Nana and Papa to his new favorite park, which he calls the Boat Park ("boat paaak"). Sam had a blast, but honestly we all did too :) Sam insisted that each of us take a turn with him on the slide!

Then Sam showed Nana and Papa the beach and boats!

We finished with the swings. When he was all worn out, Sam simply said, "Sam, Nana, Papa - go home. Drink milk." Guess the kid was thirsty! It was so sweet.

Later that afternoon we had a shower for Caroline at Aunt Meredith's house. It was great! Just friends and family, and plenty of folks to shower Sam with attention. It was so fun to have an excuse to get together with everyone, and Caroline received some adorable gifts! AND, the food was REALLY delicious, thanks to Chip, Phy, and Mere. We had a great time. Thanks so much to Mere for hosting!

And, finally, it's official...I'm really huge. Here's Miss Caroline at 33 weeks!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!