Like Brother, Like Sister!

I certainly think so! The first is a current picture of Lilly (5 weeks) and a pic of Ben from when he was about 2 months old.

Therapy?

I think it's a statistical fact that most people go into therapy because of their mother. In our house the opposite will happen - the mom will go into therapy because of the kid! I'll cite an example. Today in the car Ben was banging his toy drill against the window. I told him to stop a couple times and he didn't so I said I would take it away if he didn't quit it. Pretty typical mom stuff, no?

About two minutes later Ben tells me "Mom, I'm sad". Me "why?" Ben "Because you were mean to me. You said a bad word* and it made me sad so you were mean to me."

Obviously, his logic is a little off, but if he's this much of a head trip at two and half we are in for a rough road.

*Ben thinks a bad word is anything that he doesn't want to hear, i.e. it's time for bed, you can't have a cookie, etc.

Curious?

(This is Nate) Ben and I took a drive up to Stabler Arena at Lehigh University this weekend to checkout "Curious George Live!". The star studded cast included such favorites as The Man with the Yellow Hat, Chef Pisghetti, Professor Wiseman, Doorman, Hundley and of course Curious George himself. Ben really enjoyed himself, though he was concerned every time George wasn't on the stage. Here's a few pictures of our trip and a quick video of Ben when George came out for the first time.

Three Seconds!

One...

Two...

Three!

(This is Nate) The last picture is a little deceiving but the only one I had that depicted the aftermath of a Havertown Easter egg hunt. Fortunately, Ben and I were early, allowing us to strategize: using the Channel 6 cameraman as a blocker and keeping those elbows up, Ben was able to grab five eggs, more than enough to make his morning!

St. Patrick's Day 2010

(This is Nate) As noted previously, below is the video of Ben at the Museum and then busting out some dance moves at the Baker's rocking party:

I think I saw "The Frog" in there...

There's No "I" in Team...

(This is Nate) So Ben tells Kristen the other day "You know Mom, Daddy and I make a great team!" So to help keep team morale high over the rainy weekend, we made a trip to the First State. After a quick stop at our team's main sponsor, Chick-Fil-A, we headed over to the Air Mobility & Command Museum at Dover Air Force Base. Ben's excitement was evident as soon as we walked in, what with engines and planes everywhere (the next blog post will have brief video of his comments when we walked in). He was very interested in Great Pappap's plane (they had a B-17) and "flying" the planes in the pilot's seats. Unfortunately, it was pouring, so we couldn't see the 20+ other planes outside (BTW - It's free). After our stop at the Museum, we made a quick stop at the beach in Lewes, DE to check out the waves in the storm, then went over to Dylan Baker's for the big St. Patrick's Day party (again, see the next blog post for video from the party).

Our Baby Donut Has Arrived!

Three weeks ago, on February 16, 2010 Lillian Tate Cline arrived - nearly 3 weeks early! Coincidentally our Baby Donut was born on Fausnacht Day, which is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday when special Fausnacht donuts are eaten. Essentially our donut was born on Donut Day!

Although it was almost not so. I woke in the very early morning of February 16 and thought my water was leaking. I wasn't sure so I went back to bed thinking that next time I wake up I should have a better read on it. Around 4:30 am I woke up wet again and called the doctor who said to come to the hospital to get checked. We called Nate's parents at 5am to come over to watch Ben and off we went. Before we left, Kathie told us it was "Donut Day" - a sure sign that our baby was arriving today!

At the hospital they checked me several times and said that my water had not broken and that it was just other "stuff" coming out of me. Hm. Sounded fishy to me, but they used some sort of little detector stick so back home we went - with no baby.

On the way home, Nate let me know that he had actually taken the day off and his parents were scheduled to come down as they were going to paint the baby's room while I was at work as a surprise. Whoops, poor timing for a fake out on my part. I decided to go into work since it was only 9am and everyone would be home all day preventing me from actually doing work!

I came home later that evening to a beautifully painted room, and Nate's parents left around 6pm, after a very long day with an early start. Ben and I decided to watch a movie before bed and as I stood up a huge gush of water ran down my leg. Now, I was obviously mortified that as a non-first-time-mom I had been to the hospital when I wasn't in labor so the next time I went back I knew I better be very sure.

I knew this was my water actually breaking, but needed to be 100% sure. Nate took over with Ben's bedtime and I went downstairs and sat down. When I got up it was such a gush of water that I knew I better call the doctor. And round 2 began.

We left for the hospital at 8pm. We decided that since we had tortured Nate's parents by making them get up at 5am that Nate would drop me at the hospital, bring Ben to his parents and then come back to the hospital. When I got Ben out of bed I explained that he was going to get to get out of bed and go for a sleep over at Mimi and Papap's house. He first said "But I'm sleeping." When I said it again, he shot out of bed, quite excited at the bedtime deviation.

I will leave out the gory details so I remember only the good stuff, but Baby Lilly decided that she really wanted to be born on Donut Day and she came quite quickly once we arrived at the hospital. So quickly, in fact, that I didn't get the much desired epidural and had to go au naturale and she was actually delivered by the nurse as the doctor didn't come in in time. All drama aside, Lilly was born at 10:36pm weighing in at 6lbs. 1 oz. (exact same as her brother) and 18.5" long. She is absolutely perfect and quite stunning!!

So far she's been a total doll, although managing a 2 year old and newborn has been a bit of challenge (it took me 3 weeks to post about her birth, which shows how much free time I have!). Hopefully, I can find more time to post because everyday with Ben is pretty hysterical in itself.

Lilly, welcome to our crazy family!!