But it is . . . but it isn't

This morning at 7:51 Eva came storming into my bedroom shouting "This is your last warning Mister!" Having no clue what infraction I committed, I quietly asked, "It is?" She then replied, "But it isn't" and gave me a sweet little kiss. After the kiss, she yelled "but it is!" and then ran back out of the room.

Catch Up

Here are a few brief updates from December, January, and February.

December

In December, Christopher had his 2-month-old check up and got a clean bill of health. Despite the coughs and colds that his sisters keep picking up, he continues to stay healthy.

We mourned the loss of my Grandma Kramer. She passed away a few short days before Christmas. Though I continue to miss her, I have felt great peace about her death. It was the first time I actually got to say good-bye to someone I loved before they passed away. It was beautiful to hold her, to tell her how much I loved her, to hear the same words from her to me, and to receive a calming confirmation that she was going on to a better place.

Of course, we also celebrated a wonderful Christmas with almost all of our Kramer and Holmes siblings. It was great to see each other! We went to Kangaroo Zoo, played at the dinosaur museum, made and ate lots of delicious treats, played Harry Potter Clue, and shared a lot of great conversation with each other. Chris and I also loved the chance to see some of our old high school and college friends who were back in town visiting relatives for the holidays.

At the end of the month, on December 28th, we asked Grandpa Kramer to give Christopher his name and a priesthood blessing. Chris was blessed by his Grandpa Holmes and he thought this would be a nice tradition to extend with our own children. Here are some pictures that my sister Megan took at the event.

January

In January I went back to work. My schedule varies a bit from week to week, but I'm finding ways to do some work from home so I can still be close to Christopher and the girls. I'm continuing to publish my work and complete manuscripts to submit for publication--both an exciting and frightening part of life as a professor.

We also celebrated Chris's 35th birthday.

February

In February, Chris performed a recital in the Temple Square Recital Series in Salt Lake. It was a great success thanks to his accompanist Jane Galloway and his fellow recital performer Monte Belknap on the violin. The day after the recital, we took Chris to the airport to begin rehearsals for Bizet's Carmen.

While Chris has been away Elena has broken her arm, I have melted a plastic baby bib in my oven (requiring me to evacuate my home so my kids and I didn't inhale too many plastic fumes), and I have learned how to replace the rear brake lights in my car. I have also enjoyed extra cuddle time with my children, some quiet time in the evenings, and lots of wonderful love and support from my parents, parents-in-law, and sisters who live in the area.

We also welcomed two new nieces into our family this month. Sydney gave birth to Ella Marie, and Taliatha gave birth to Ann-Marie Wren.

Finally, back to where we started, Christopher had his four-month-old check-up last week. He weighed almost 16 pounds, was 25 1/2 inches long, and his head is 43 1/2 cm around. He is getting so big! He loves to giggle, coo, smile, eat, poop, and sleep. He is also getting used to Eva's high pitched squeals, and her (sometimes) gentle hugs and kisses.

Updates on Christopher

I've been busy (lazy?) and haven't posted updated photos of baby Christopher. He's changing so much that I can't put it off any longer. I'll start with the above photo when he was 1 week old and just home from the hospital. So adorable!

Below are two photos when he was just shy of 2 weeks old.

We skipped a week of photos, so here are two when he was 1 month old. Do you see how smooth and round his head got as his hematoma healed?

Finally, here is a photo we took last Wednesday. Notice anything different?

You're correct. No oxygen canula! Last Wednesday our home health providers called and told us we should do an overnight pulse oxymetry test. That means they gave us yet another monitor, told us to take Christopher off of the oxygen for the entire night, and asked us to return the monitor the next morning. We had to take advantage of the opportunity to film him without his canula. It was like seeing his face for the first time. We also got to take the socks off his hands since we didn't have to wory about him removing his oxygen tubing. Aren't his little hands beautiful?

Our biggest news yet is that the pediatrician called us last night and told us the results of the test . . . no more oxygen necessary! Just in time for Thanksgiving we can report that we are grateful for one less set of wires, no portable oxygen tank, and 50 feet less of tubing to trip on around the house.

Now I'm off to make the cranberry, cherry, and toasted walnut chutney for tomorrow's Thanksgiving feast. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Cheap Meals

O.K. friends. Here's the deal. I need some great ideas for cheap meals. With Chris and Eva allergic to dairy products and gluten, our grocery costs have increased by a ton. We need to get our costs under control. Please post your favorite inexpensive meal ideas as comments. Even if they have dairy or gluten, post them anyway. We can all benefit and I might be able to modify them for cheap anyway!

Christopher Neal Holmes is Here!

On Thursday, October 16, 2008 we welcomed Christopher Neal Holmes to our family. He weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and was roughly 19 inches long. I went to the hospital around 9:30 a.m. and I delivered him at 8:34 p.m. It was my longest labor to date--full of lots of unexpected twists and turns, including forceps!!


Unfortunately, he aspirated some meconium during the delivery, and had to be rushed to the respiratory therapists at the hospital, so I have no sweet pictures of me holding him after his birth--I had to wait for 2 days to be able to hold him in my arms and nurse him for the first time.


After 2 days of treatments with the CPAP machine, surfactant, and antiobiotics we thought we'd be able to bring him home, but his body just wasn't ready yet. His bilirubin levels were increasing and his little lungs were still hazy. That means we all got to experience the NICU for another week. He received 5 more days of antibiotics, 2 days of "bili lights," an EKG to rule out heart problems, and quite a few more IVs, pokes, and pricks. On Thursday October 23rd, we finally got to bring him home. He still has to be on oxygen to strengthen his lungs, but we're hoping that within the next month he'll be off the oxygen. Many thanks to Emily for taking this adorable picture.



Here are some pictures of Elena and Eva meeting their baby brother at the NICU for the first time. You'll see from the pictures that they each enjoyed touching his cute little piggies. He's still hooked up to the CPAP machine in these pictures.

Getting Started

We love everyone else's blogs, so we decided to set up one of our own. We hope our friends and family enjoy ours as much as we enjoy theirs.


For our first post, we want to share some up-to-date photos of Elena and Eva. This August, after the Holmes Family Reunion, Grandma Holmes convinced us all to get some new family pictures. These are two of the pictures we took. Note that you can also see a glimpse of baby Christopher in mommy's tummy behind Elena.