March Madness

It has been a while since we have shared any updates. This is our first “official” family blog post, but I have copied over all the previous posts from Ben’s baby blog onto this site so they are all in one place. The McCulloughs have also broken down and are officially on Facebook now. We never thought we would see that day, but enough peer pressure and missing out on “status updates” during the week pushed us to join. So if you are on Facebook, look for us and let us be your friend!

These past couple of months have been a total joy and learning experience for our whole family. We are reliving all of the newborn milestones with our sweet Elizabeth. It is a joy all over again and brings back so many memories of Ben’s newborn days. Elizabeth (or Ellie or Baby Sister) is doing really well. She is like Ben in many ways, but definitely has her own personality. She is more vocal than Ben was at this age and we are working on figuring out all of her requests. Ellie eats about every three hours (day or night) which is great as we know our schedule, but tiring as that makes for short stretches of sleep for Mom in the night. She is growing and changing weekly, and even daily sometimes. Her looks are really changing and she is filling our her clothes more and more. This last couple of weeks or so have brought us the start of Elizabeth’s beautiful smiles. It is so rewarding to see her sweet grin after weeks of wanting to see that personal connection. Next week, Elizabeth will start going to “school” with Ben. In preparation for that, we tried her first bottle last week. It was successful and she didn’t seem to care as long as she was getting milk somehow. Pacifiers have been a different struggle though. That was a surprise as big brother loved his “paci” at first sight. We have found that Ellie will take a Soothie brand pacifier, but not every time she wants to be soothed. So far no other brands have been successful, but she is becoming easier to soothe as the weeks continue. She has started to like her swing and likes to play in her activity gym. Elizabeth has also started batting at toys and kicking at them.

This time around has been much more relaxed in the fact that this isn’t the first newborn in our house. A lot of first time worries aren’t leaving Mom and Dad anxious and we have been able to focus on getting to know Elizabeth and enjoying this time. The added blessing this time is that we also get to see Ben become a big brother. That is more of a joy than we could have imagined. He loves “Baby Sister” so much and wants to do everything for her and with her. “I wash baby sister! I change baby sister! I share my orange with baby sister! My turn to hold baby sister!” It is too bad that we can’t fulfill all of these requests, but we do our best to accommodate. Ben is the lead toe washer for Elizabeth at her bath time. He is an excellent companion in the back seat of the car with his “Shh, shh, you're okay, baby sister!” Ben enjoys holding his sister and will give Mom or Dad a turn when she gets squirmy or one of his toys suddenly calls his name. The love he already has for her has surprised us most of all and it brings joy each day to our family.

Ben also still enjoys his solo adventures at school. His new classroom upstairs is filled with new friends and some familiar faces from previous classes. He enjoys the new play centers in the classroom and comes home with a new story about his adventures each day. Ben is becoming more and more articulate and his humor is really developing and keeping us all on our toes. He is his own biggest fan and gets tickled and very pleased with himself when he has told a joke. With the changing weather, Ben has been able to spend more time outside. He has a new basketball goal and loves to go “shoot it!” with Mom or Dad in the evenings. Ben has passed the thirty pound mark, so he continues to be a growing boy. He was weighed at our most recent trip to the doctor’s office when he had an “ouchie” near his eye that required some steri strips. (A toy ambulance escaped the hands of one of his friends at school. Oops!)

Well, this has gone on long enough. Hopefully future posts will be more frequent and shorter.

Elizabeth is Here!

We are so excited to announce the arrival of Elizabeth Clare McCullough!

Elizabeth arrived on January 27th at 8:45 am.

She weighs 8 lbs 2 ounces and is 20 inches long.

Everyone is doing well. We are resting at St. Francis and look forward to bringing Elizabeth home soon! We are so thankful for all of your support and prayers through the pregnancy. We would appreciate continued prayer for fast healing for mom and healthy growth and development for baby.

Since Katie delivered by C section, we will be up to visitors and calls on Wednesday, if the roads are safe.

Waiting for Baby Sister

We wanted to update post holidays and before Elizabeth joins our family next week. Ben had a wonderful Christmas shared with lots of friends and family. We made a special trip to the Christmas Train, which he loved. Ben also got to visit Santa, which I am not sure he loved quite as much, but didn’t cry. One of our favorite things this season was looking at the Christmas lights around town, which we are still discussing. Ben took right to presents and began to greet family with, “Presents?” after a couple of days of celebrating. Nice. He was thoroughly spoiled from all directions and is enjoying being in his playroom any time we are at home. Choo choos, horses, coloring and puzzles remain some of Ben’s favorites. He has also been very interested in letters and “reading” lately. This includes reading to the baby. We encouraged him to tell her about the pictures in the books since she couldn’t see them yet. He then proceeded to take the book and turn it to my belly so she could “see” what he was looking at. He was trying! After the holiday frenzy settled down, we began to have showers and get out all the baby gear in preparation for Sister. Ben was very interested in things that he recognized as “his”, but claims that he will share with Sister and will teach her how to use everything. He will call her “Lithbeth” when asked, but mostly refers to her as Ben’s Baby Sister. He is most excited about the car seat that appeared next to his recently. Since it was installed, he has asked to see Baby Sister and sit by her in the car every day. Not much longer, Ben! Then we will see what you really think. J For the next week we will have fun washing her tiny clothes and talking about where she will sleep and what toys will be her favorites. Every few months it seems that there is a physical or language explosion in Ben’s life. Ben is definitely much more agile than he used to be, but we have really noticed language taking off and it is so fun to hear grown up sounding phrases coming out of a toddler’s mouth. Some of the connections he makes continue to amaze us (correct or incorrect). It is enjoyable when inanimate objects take on feelings or Ben thinks he has made a joke. He will tell the highway, “bye, bye, see you later!” when we exit and then follow up that the highway is “sad” that we aren’t on it any more. His jokes include switching words that he knows aren’t correct and then waiting for you to challenge him. “The pig says quack, quack! (followed by giggles) – Are you sure? – No! The pig says oink, oink!” And he is still the mimic, but his role models are expanding which we are becoming more and more mindful of. He loves to say “Oh, man!!” like Swiper on Dora (a popular cartoon in our house for those of you without kids this age). We hope all is well with your family! We will update via email when Ben is officially a big brother and Elizabeth joins our family. We hope to have pictures and longer updates shortly after, but that is an ambitious mommy making promises prior to having to care for a newborn and an adjusting toddler. So we will do the best we can!