Jake and Angie Boone

23 March 2009

"Clara is one month old" or "Our two little dictators"

To explain our title, first and foremost Clara has been with us for a whole month! We love her tons and just can't get enough of her chubby cheeks and soft, fuzzy hair. Gabriel absolutely can't keep his fingers off of her (even at the risk of a time-out), and even if he is in mid-temper tantrum, he has to stop and kiss and cuddle his baby sister before he can continue. I could sit and look at her all day and never get bored, and we are really enjoying this time of getting to know our sweet little girl. Mimi (my mom) just visited us this past week, and Nana and Pawpaw (Jake's parents) are headed here on Thursday for a visit as well. I am so glad that they were all able to arrange a visit while our little Clara Grace is still brand new.

Secondly, we have two little dictators in our house: one looks like a dictator and the other acts like one! Clara's hair is crazy. After we wash and comb it, she looks a bit like Kim Jong-Il. It's dark and fuzzy, it pokes up in all directions, and it sways in the breeze like a dandilion!!! I love it, as long as it's a temporary situation. She'd really get teased at school if it stuck around! As for our other little evil dictator, Gabriel has been on the rampage lately. I'd tell you how many times he had to sit in time-out the last few days, but I have absolutely lost count. To be fair, he's been really sick twice since we brought Clara home, we've been hibernating because of the miserable weather, and he's competing for attention with a newborn, but I am really getting tired of this boundary-testing phase. I sure hope it disappears soon. Luckily, he likes to cuddle when he's feeling crummy, so I almost always get lots of cuddles between tantrums!

These pictures are a bit old, but I'll add some more this weekend.

Gabriel's 2nd Birthday

Gabriel meeting Clara in the NICU

14 March 2009

New Web Address

Welcome to the new location for our family blog! We thought the birth of our second child would be a good opportunity to focus the blog less exclusively on our first child, and also grab an easy-to-remember web address: jakeandangieboone.com.

All the posts from the old blog have moved with us, so you can see them below.

Here's our first video of Gabriel and Clara together, doing what we like them to do most — sleep!

26 February 2009

Clara Grace Boone!

I just wanted to let everyone know that Gabriel is now a wonderful big brother!!!

We brought Clara home today, and we are all well. She was born on Monday, February 23, 2009 at 8:36pm at Frederick Memorial Hospital. We both had a fever when she was born, so Clara had to stay a few days in the NICU while they ran some blood tests to make sure she didn't have an infection. She received the all clear last night, and she was released today at lunchtime. She was born at 7lbs. 8oz. and 21 1/2 inches long (almost as long as Gabriel, who was 8lbs. 2oz. and over 22 inches long). She has very dark hair and dark eyes. Her skin is much more olive than Gabriel's, so they don't look anything alike! Luckily, we dressed them both in maroon for coming home day, so Gabriel was thrilled that they both had maroon and white shirts on.

Clara is wonderful! She is calm and quiet, and she doesn't fuss unless there's something to fuss about. She impressed the nurses by holding her pacifier in by herself (all the NICU babies have them), and they all loved her fuzzy dark hair. She has long fingers and toes, and her eyes are big and bright. And she loves to have her mouth open, even when she is asleep! She loves to nurse and sleep, so she is an ideal baby!

Gabriel was sooooo excited to bring her home, and he has been covering her in hugs and kisses since we got here. He made me sit in a chair with him and Clara and he wanted to show her his High-5 Magazine. He would intermittently pat her head, hug her shoulder, or squeeze her hand to make sure she was paying attention. He only got annoyed once: he wanted me to "put Clara on floor: play trains!" He really wanted her to come play with him, but we decided to cuddle as a family instead! He is wonderfully gentle and loving, and just so proud to have his little sister home. I am really pleased with his understanding of everything and joy about the new situation. Thank you, God!!!

Gabriel has been such a superstar since this whole fiasco began on Sunday. I was miserable all day, but he was very patient and loving. We were at the hospital until midnight, and he did his best to be a very good boy. After going home for a few hours of sleep, we all decided it was time to go back to the hospital. We dropped him off at a friend's house at 5:30am, and he cuddled with Maureen until her kids got up, then he got to play all day long. Once Clara was born, we called to say that Jake could come pick him up. Maureen had already put him to bed, and he'd been asleep for an hour and a half already! So Gabriel got to have his first sleepover party!!! He was so proud, and he had so much fun. I am so proud of him for being a big boy and playing nicely with his friends.

While I was at the hospital, Jake came home with Gabriel a few times. One naptime, Gabriel was not in the mood for a nap. Jake put him in his bed, but Gabriel threw his pillows all over the place and hopped off the bed to play with his toys. Jake was exhausted and just let him do whatever, but he had to stay in his room. An hour later, Jake went to free him from his confinement, but Gabriel was in bed asleep with all his pillows back in place! He's never done anything like that, and it makes me even prouder of my big boy.

One more note: our blog will be changing soon! We'll have a new address that will be a bit more fitting for our family of four. It'll be an easy transition, but Jake will post all the details once it's ready to go. Also, we'll have tons of pictures up as soon as we can. We need to develop a few rolls of film, and we have lost our phone-to-computer cord, so we'll do our best to get pics up quickly!

UPDATE: We'll pick up our pictures from the lab tomorrow, but here are some phone pictures to tide you over :).

20 February 2009

Party Videos

I know it's been way too long since we posted any videos, so here are a couple from Gabriel's 2nd birthday.

18 February 2009

Happy 2nd Birthday Gabriel!!!

What a wonderful day! Gabriel is now two years old, and we had the best birthday ever! He woke up cheerful and excited, and he went to bed cheerful and excited... in a big boy bed in his big boy room, might I add! We had some Stroller Strides friends over for a lunchtime party, and G just loved it. We ended up with 6 kiddoes (5 girls and a boy) coming over to play, eat dino-nuggets with fruit and a super-yummy chocolate cake, and decorate flowerpots and plant some seeds. Gabriel got some really great presents and looooooved having his friends over to play. His tool table was especially popular. I think there are a few little girls that will be getting little tools for their birthdays :).

Gabriel was such a little star. He woke up a little early, so he and Daddy had breakfast downstairs while Mama got a some extra rest. He was Mr. Happy, and it was so great to wake up to his little smiling face this morning. He got two early birthday calls this morning from his grandparents (which so delighted him), then he helped me finish making his birthday cake, and then he got to watch Peter Pan while he danced around in his Indian Moccasins and reorganized his presents -- what a fun morning for the little guy.

We didn't get around to opening all his presents at the party, so we decided to wait until Jake got home to finish up. Instead, he helped me clean up (he insisted on helping me clean before he took his nap!!!) and then we curled up on the couch for a cozy Mama and baby snooze. When we woke up, he almost immediately wanted to open presents, but I said that we needed to wait for Daddy. We started cooking dinner when Jake walked in the door. Gabriel yelled "Daddy is home! Let's open those presents!!!" With that, he zoomed from the kitchen to the living room, completely ignoring Jake and diving into the rest of the gifts. It was the funniest thing he's done all day!

As for other random info, G can count to 16 now, and he's starting to recognize his letters better (although he picked up a letter A from the floor today and said "A is for Gabriel." We'll work on that one!) He is a puzzle-working machine, and he still loves to read books. He is pretty good at identifying dinosaurs, and he knows the names of half of the Thomas Trains! I catch him singing all the time, and I'm always surprised by how many of the words and tunes he remembers correctly. And of course he's usually singing AND dancing. That is the cutest thing you'll ever see, especially when we are out in public and he just HAS to stop, dance, and sing! If he gets tired of singing, he'll just stop, shake his head and say "can't sing that song" and continue on his way. He is such a little person now, and we can have real conversations about things. It's just amazing to see his little brain working. Unfortunately, he's figured out that if he cocks his head to the side and says "pweeeeese," it's very hard for grown-ups to resist him!!!

As for Clara, she is still doing fine and we are still waiting for her to arrive. Two weeks left until the due date, and I still feel good. I'm a bit tired at times, but I'm still active and comfortable (mostly, as long as I am careful about how much I'm on my feet and how much jumping or side-stepping I'm doing). I still go to my exercise class 3 days a week, and I just feel so grateful to have those women in my life! Although we are so far from family, these ladies make us feel safe and at home here in Maryland. It's so nice to have Christian friends that are in the same phase of life and even live in the same town... it's a first for us!!! And I can't neglect to mention our awesome neighbors that love us like family. We may not be thrilled about renting a little back-to-back townhome sometimes, but I love our neighbors (as well as Jake's 4 minute commmute to work).

Happy Valentine's to you all, and we'll let you know when little Clara Grace decides to arrive! Whoopee!

23 January 2009

Happy 2009!

We have been having so much fun that I have been terrible about blogging! We had a great time in Texas visiting as much of our family as we could, although we came back to Maryland fairly exhausted from all our traveling. After a few weeks of fighting colds and other ailments, we are back in the swing of things. Jake is back at work with a new schedule (he now has to go in early, but he gets alternate Fridays off), and Gabriel and I are back at Stroller Strides and keeping busy with our chores and errands. It's nice to be back to normal, and it's fun to see Gabriel getting excited about our new schedule. He likes getting up and leaving in his pajamas to take Daddy to work, and then it's fun to come home and make breakfast before going to class.

It's been rough adjusting to the terribly cold weather up here since our return, but even tougher since the weather was soooooo nice in Texas -- in the 60's and 70's!!! We had some snow the other day, so that was a nice way to break up the bitter cold. Gabriel and I went for a snow hike and found a big, fat, brown bunny curled up on the playground. He's still excited about the snow-bunny!!! Today it was finally warm enough to play outside -- first time in a couple months. It's supposed to get cold again soon, so we'll have to go back to hibernating :(.

As for the baby, we are getting excited about finally meeting her! I'm at 34 weeks now, so we have around 6 weeks until her due date. If you don't already know, her name is Clara Grace, although Gabriel calls her "Cwara Grace!" She has suddenly moved down lower in my tummy, so I finally feel like I need to waddle a bit... I'm doing my best not to duck-walk :).

As for Gabriel news, he is just growing and learning every day. One of the most fun new developments is that he can sing songs now! He knows quite a few, and I'll catch him singing to himself verses from songs that I had no idea he even remembered. He's often fairly in tune and has a bit of rhythm, but he sometimes likes to put his own spin on things. And if he wants a song about whatever thing he's thinking about, he'll just make up his own lyrics. For example, if he wants an "elephant song" he'll start sing-songing "elephant song, elephant song, elephants eat dinner, elephant song, elephant sleeping in the chair..."

He's also great at identifying dinosaurs. We have a couple dinosaur books, and he has memorized many of the dinosaurs' names! He's also getting good at remembering the names of a lot of the states. Grampy (my dad's dad) gave him a big U.S. puzzle, and he loves working it bit by bit and naming the states, especially Montana, California, and Texas. He really likes to put his animals on Maryland and announce "dinosaurs sitting on Maryland! Gabriel lives in Maryland!"

He still loves to cook, he loves his new tools that he got for Christmas (he is constantly fixing things), and he is absolutely obsessed with Thomas trains. Anything involved with transportation is great, but especially trains. And his animals play with his toys with him. It's really cute. Another new thing is that he likes for his animals to "talk" to him. He wants Jake or me to hold an animal and make it move and talk like a puppet. His eyes light up and he gets so excited! If I can't get him to put on his shoes, all I have to do is pick up an animal and have the animal ask him to put on his shoes. Voila, shoes are on in a flash :).

To answer a lot of questions, yes, we are planning to have Clara up here in Frederick at the local hospital. Please come visit if you can! We have a guest room, a hide-a-bed couch in the living room, and an air mattress, so we can squeeze you all in :). And the next time we'll be in Texas is the end of May, as we'll be attending Melanie's (Jake's sister) HS graduation in Amarillo.

We've also had a lot of questions about gifts for Gabriel and Clara, so I thought I'd put our answer on the blog for all to see! We made a little registry with Babies R Us. It's mostly a list of things we're planning to get for Clara, but there are a couple Gabriel-related items as well. We're planning on moving him to a full-sized bed for his birthday in February, so bed related things will be exciting! He looooves books, so that's always a good choice. And he loves to go to Target or Barnes & Noble to pick out a toy or book, so that's a for sure fun thing for him. As for Clara, we have a lot of the basics but not as much "girl" stuff. Most of G's baby stuff was pretty neutral, so we plan on using most of it for C as well. Babies R Us and Babiesrus.com are good places to go to look for Clara ideas.

I've got a ton of pictures to post, so I'll do a few when I get a chance. Keep checking, and I promise to get some up here eventually!