Introducing Matthew Peter Thomas Spear!!!

I started having contractions on Friday, March 13th, around 6:15 am. They were about 6-7 minutes apart at that point. As I have been having contraction flurries for months now, we were not sure if it was worth going into the hospital or not but around 7:30, just as Jeremy and Katelyn were about ready to leave, we decided it would be better to play it safe and go get checked out. On the way, they began to come every 3 minutes and were getting more intense.

When we arrived at the hospital they brought us to a room and hooked me up to the monitors. I was doing ok but the baby had a few heart rate drops during the contractions and they were showing no sign of slowing down. After about 30 minutes, they decided to consult the doctor, who was in surgery, and get his opinion. We started calling people to let them know it was possible the baby was coming.

They finally got word from the doctor around 10:15 that we should deliver.....at 11:00!!! I was in shock that it would be happening that fast. No one was there to watch Katelyn yet and we did not have anything with us. I did not feel at all ready but the decision had been made. Grandad arrived at about 10:40 am and called Grandma to have her come too. Katelyn did not like the way Jeremy looked in the scrubs he had to wear and was very upset when we had to leave the room to head off to surgery. She calmed down once Grandma showed up and started to get a bit excited about seeing the baby.

Matthew was born at 11:44 am. He weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces and was 19 and 1/4 inches long. He was very loud and kicked a great deal, throughout the delivery and after, just as he had since the 18th week of the pregnancy. :) Katelyn's initial reaction when she saw him was to go up to the bassinet and ask to hold him right then and there. When the nurse told her she needed to give him a bath, Katelyn quickly volunteered to help out with it.

We are home now and adjusting to our new family dynamics. Katelyn LOVES to be helpful and hold her baby brother every chance she gets. She has started feeding her babies 'Mommy Milk' just like I feed Matthew, and she can't wait until it will be her turn to feed him his first bottle in a week or so.

Katelyn Cooks!!

Katelyn has started to help out a lot in the kitchen. She loves getting food prepped for dinner and putting the silverware on the table. We recently showed her how to cut up the ham for Jeremy's famous Carbonara dish. She was very careful with the knife and listened to Daddy as they worked together to get it all cut up.










Over the holidays, she also helped out making some Christmas cookies for her friends and making the pumpkin pie and whipped cream for Thanksgiving.

Lately she has also started cooking for all her dolls and making soup for everyone to eat. She is always very careful to let us know that it is hot and that we need to blow on it and cool it off before we eat any.

2008 Comes to a Close

Well it has been one heck of a year. I know we have not posted nearly often enough about Katelyn's progress this year and for that I apologize. I will try to be better as we get into the new year, I promise.

Katelyn is now a very opinionated almost two and a half year old who loves to read and do puzzles as well as sing. She has gotten extremely verbal over the last few weeks and is using complete sentences all the time now. She has also started to show interest in using the potty and likes to go each time Mommy does.

For Halloween she dressed up as a little devil. She was very cute, although was not incredibly fond of the hood portion of the costume. She had a lot of fun going trick or treating and got enough candy to last a few weeks. When it was finally gone, she was very upset and want to go out and get more.

We went to Grandma and Da's house for Thanksgiving again this year. Katelyn was a bit shy around their friends, but warmed up after 30-40 minutes or so. She was SOOO excited to get to drink out of a big girl glass (that's apple juice, btw) and eat at the table with everyone without a high chair. She also got to help make the pumpkin pie as well as the whipped cream. After dinner, she even got the lick the beater from the whipping cream!!

We all went back east to Maine for Christmas this year. Katelyn really enjoyed the airplane trips and was disappointed when she was not allowed to fly the plane herself. She spent a lot of time with Memere and Pepere and had a lot of fun playing and reading books with them. The first night we were together, we were explaining that these were the people she had been talking to on the phone all those times. She looked at each and said the following: "You Memere? You Pepere? ...... That YOU!?!?" Her face was all scrunched up and it was like a light turned on over her head when she made the connection. It was a sight to see.

She got to see her great grandmothers again as well as a number of aunts, uncles and cousins she had never met before. Although a bit overwhelmed at first, she did get into things and had a good time at each gathering.

This was also the first time she really experienced snow in a meaningful way. There was a blizzard the day after we arrived, which is how she was really introduced to it, and that pretty much turned her off from wanting to play in it. It was cold and wet and wouldn't come off her shoes. After a couple days she got into stomping on the snow to make foot prints in it and sticking a finger into a snow bank to make a face, but that was about as far as she was willing to go.

All in all a very full year. We are expecting a new baby in March, so Katelyn will soon be a big sister.

Katelyn's 2!!!

Katelyn had so much fun on her birthday. There was a celebration at school with all her friends. They had cupcakes, played games and ran all over the place. Later that night, we went out to dinner as a family to one of her favorite restaurants, McNear's, and had a wonderful dinner. She got to have an ice cream Sunday for dessert all to herself.

On Sunday we had a party at the duck pond. Her friend Caelyn came and the two of them had the greatest time together. There were cupcakes to be eaten, bubbles to pop, ducks to feed, seagulls to chase and geese to laugh in awe at. They played hide and seek, chased each other around the fields and laughed so much we could hardly believe it. It was a beautiful day and neither girl wanted the fun to end. Both were were completely exhausted when we packed up to go home, and were asleep before we got even half way there.

Hawaiian Holiday

We just got back from a wonderful week in Hawaii. Katelyn had a blast in the pool and the ocean. The pool was designed to be 'beach-like' and had a pebble bottom and allowed you to walk in gradually. She was thrilled being able to go in and out on her own. She also enjoyed digging in the sand and pebbles, although got frustrated when they stuck to her hands.

She loved seeing all the wildlife on the island of Kauai. She chased a crab on the beach, fed some cats at the resort and even caught her first frog outside one of the restaurants we ate at. She pet the horses from our trail ride and chased lizards, too. We had to go out looking for the cats almost every night, which was really an excuse for her to go into the pool again. :)