We have a THREE month old

It had been such a great month here at the Kinder home. We've celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a family of three, set up our family Christmas Tree, and get to know more about out little boy every day!
Here's a picture of Aunt Caycay and E on Thanksgiving.




























And the Kinder Family Christmas Tree

Over the last month we have gotten rid of the sassy (pacifier) and that has resulted in longer naps and night time sleep for both E and mommy and daddy. It was getting to the point where he was waking up because his sass fell out and not a good habit in the least. I was having to go in a give it back to him several times in the middle of the night. Soooooooo looooong sassy pass!! He has done wonderfully without it... He slept 10 hours last night! Wahoo! The next thing to go is the swaddle. Now we've gotten one arm out and are gonna work on both arms free soon!

Things I'm thankful for:
Cloth diapers - the best way to save money! And the cutest tooshie ever!

Christmas time - love this time of year! Thankful for the JOY of knowing my Savior and the opportunity to celebrate his birth.... Next year will be even better with a little boy who we can start to introduce some great family traditions!!


Smiles - no explanation needed!

A flexible work schedule - I can work from home and when I do need to go in the the office, I can bring my lil guy with me! Or just recently he's gotten to spend some time with Nana and Auntie CayCay for a few hours while Mommy's at the office.

FaceTime - I think we've FaceTimed (video chat on the iPhone) with my mom and dad,(Mimi and PopPop), Caitlyn, and of course daddy several times this week and each time it's so good for their heart and mine!

Baby lotion - makes my lil guy smell absolutely scrumptious!!

We just had a little family photo shoot last weekend. Petie was the photographer and my sis, Caitlyn took the ones with the whole fam!

Here are our favorites:

I can't believe Santa will be here in less than a week! 

Emmitt (or E, kiddobug, buggie, boogie, buggerboo, sugerbug, diddyboy, doodlebug, ninny, fatso, Emmittdoo, tuggertug, baby boy, chunk-a-munk, little big man as we affectionately call him at different points in the day)....

Mommy and daddy love you so much!  We love the lil personality you are starting to have.  The way you light up when you see either one of us makes our day everytime!  We love your sweet coos and squeals, the way you surprise yourself with a new sound and or movement, and of course your many many fat rolls! You are the greatest gift this Christmas and every Christmas!

We love you,

Mommy and Daddy

Coming soon: Our family trip to Louisville, E's new tricks - standing up and being so proud and sucking his fingers, and other fun Kinder Family stuff!

Changes

So....totally meant to post this four weeks ago! I've just had other more important things.... ;)
Our boy is already a month old and has wrapped us around his itty bitty finger! He is such a joy, I cant imagine my life without him.

We are beginning to notice little idiosyncrasies and I'll be honest, I'm the mom that calls Petie at work to tell him things like "Hey babe, I now your busy but I just wanted to tell you that he stuck his tongue out and he can roll it like me" or "Emmitt just filled his diaper and in the middle of putting a new one on, he tooted and poop shot across the changing table."

I know, a bit graphic, but that's my life these days. I never thought I'd get so excited about a burp, poopy diaper, or toot.

What's our little man up to these days?

Lil Piggy...he makes the sweetest grunts and snorts. They can be happy sorts or mad angry grunts, but none the less, we love em! Petie calls them caveman sounds, which is quite appropriate given his hairiness!!

Swaddle me..... Emmitt loooooves being swaddled, especially at night. He can be sleepy and yawn or wide awake, and as soon as he feels the comfort of that swaddle, the battle is quickly surrendered and we have a sleeping boy in our arms.

Kissy face.... Ever since birth, he has a face that's let us know that he is a happy camper....I'll let it speak for itself...

He is starting to coo and melt this mamma's heart into mush. Just yesterday, he was leaning back on my legs facing me and let out the biggest grin and giggle! I was surprised at first then made the bragging call to my hubby at work.."guess what I just got from your little boy...." I will try to get it on video if I think about it!

Last week, we took him to the Dr for his month old check up and Petie and I had taken guesses as to how much we thought he weighed......wow, waaay off! I think we both were way under..haha

Weight: 11 lbs 8 oz (83%)
Height: 22 inches (63%) that's right, he shrunk since last time ;)

Needless to say, life is so different than it was just a mere five weeks ago..but I do have to say its a great different.... A great 11 and a half pounds different!!

Full Heart!

My heart is so full, I can hardly stand it! I have a two week old little boy, the most precious baby boy in the world!  I just put my lil man down and can hear him sleeping so peacefully through the monitor that I have sitting here next to me.  He's such an amazing little boy.  I can honestly say, I am overwhelmed with joy!

This past week, we had many firsts:

~First trip out of the house as a family of three (besides the Dr.) - Midway Fall Festival
~First trip out with just mommy - the mall with Mimi (my mom)
~First play time on tummy mat "tummy time" with daddy
~First walk with the dogs and daddy, while mommy took a shower (not first shower for mommy...I promise)

Something hilarious just happened right before bedtime tonight.  I fed him and Petie and I both work so hard to keep him awake after a feeding in hopes that he will get on  good schedule and sleep well when its time to sleep.  I ate dinner while Petie kept him awake and then, I took over (its exhausting trying to entertain this little boy :).  Then, as a part of our nightly routine, I began to change his diaper.....

Wow!  He not only filled it in a very short time, he decided he wasn't finished when I took it off. He peed, and peed, and peed, all over himself, the changing pad, himself, his new diaper, himself.....get the idea.  He then looked up at me, wet hair, and face, and all and then he cooed!  The sweetest sound I'd heard! My little boy was covered in pee and lovin every second of it!

Needless to say, it was now, not bedtime, it was bath time....which he really does enjoy.  He's gonna be a water lover like his momma!  He just coos and smiles (i know they're still reflexive at this point, but it still just melts this mommas heart).

I am so thankful!  I have a husband that is the best daddy a boy could ever ask for!  He really enjoys getting involved in Emmitt's day, even if his routine is not all that eventful yet.  I am so blessed by the little family God has given me!

I took my lil man to the doctor today and was utterly shocked by how good he is at growing!  Here are the stats that we learned:

Height: 22 1/4 inches (92nd percentile)
Weight: 10 lbs. 1 oz. (85th percentile)

Head Circumference: 38 1/4 cm (74th percentile)

Needless to say, he's an extremely great eater, no need to worry now!  I guess with a hubby who was born weighing 9lbs. 9oz. and a dad who weighed almost 13lbs at birth, I should have expected to have a line backer early on!

I love my little family beyond words!

Before bed every night, Petie and I pray over Emmitt to sleep peacefully, and grow into the man that God created him to be with our guidance and direction.  When I put that into words, I begin to realize how trusting and faithful our God is.  He has given us a precious life to lead and mold by His grace and mercy.  That sounds so daunting and anxiety provoking at times, but I know that as Petie and I commit more and more of our days and minutes to His care, we will be fully equipped for the journey!

Church Food

Wow, we are so thankful! We are firm believers in the power of the local church; in it's power to change lives, provide real community, and bring Christ to the world. Normally we aren't on the receiving end of the love and servanthood that the local church provides, but man have we experienced that recently! So thankful for our church. They've blessed us with baby gifts, encouraging emails and messages, excitement, and so much more. And most recently, they've been blessing us with FOOD! Wow!! We've been eating on food from our small group all week, and just today we got a FANTASTIC meal from Boo Nuckols! We've got meals comin our way for the next few weeks! It's humbling to be served by our church family, and we are so thankful! It's such a huge blessing to not have to worry about what we are eating each night, especially when we are focusing all our attention on our little big man eating!!

Church Food is amazing!!!!

FYI: Emmitt is doing great! New pics and videos coming soon!

Picture Day

SHOOOOOO, long day but super fun. We took a TON of pictures of Emmitt today. Our good friend and photographer Sara Corman came over and took some extremely good pictures of him as well! She's great! I'm sure everyone on facebook is sick of seeing pictures of our little boy show up in their feed by now! But we're those cheesy parents who don't care!

So far, life has been busy for our little guy. Everyone getting to know and meet him, us going to doctor's appointments, learning schedules, feeding, etc. etc. etc. then picture day today, WOW just busy busy busy!

We are loving the time of calm at night and in between sleeping sessions where he's just chilling in our arms. Man he's an easy kid so far. He's so sweet, so chilled, so relaxed. Trying to be that relaxed and calm family....hope he appreciates that someday. Hope he always thinks of home as a place that he can go, crash, relax, kick back, and take it easy....even when he's grown up and has a busy schedule of his own. Hope he thinks of us and home as a retreat from the chaotic and stressful world around him.

Here are a couple of the pics we love from today!!!

9/8/11 @ 9:58 p.m.

Emmitt Adrion Kinder was born!!!! So thankful for the gift of life, thankful for great nurses, a great midwife, and a great delivery. Thank you Jesus!! Will never forget the events of today.... From experiencing the first 7 cm naturally, to the beauty of the epidural, to Petie and I constantly updating family in the waiting room. Most memorable is obviously seeing him enter this world, and then seeing him weigh in at a whopping almost 9 lbs!

Love love love Emmitt and am loving getting to know him more already. He's already changing so fast!!!!!

Thankful for a schedule!

Went to the dr. today and they have scheduled us for an induction tomorrow morning at 7:30 A.M.! Can't believe our little boy will be here! We celebrated by having one more date night, just the two of us, at Saul Good! Followed of course by some walking/shopping at Target. This is our standard date, love it!

We were hoping there would be this monumental moment in the middle of the night, where my water would break, and then I'd wake Petie up and go to the hospital and go into labor the normal way. Well, that didn't happen. But what a blessing in disguise for us! I've had time to get the house in order, call my family and let them know when to be and where, take the dogs on a long walk, do some last minute laundry, and get everything ready for our big day tomorrow!! This has been such a great pregnancy, loved every minute of it. And tomorrow, we get to hold our sweet little boy. Cannot wait!!!!

Dr. tells me I should get a lot of sleep tonight....yea right! I'm gonna be up all night!

Can't wait to post a picture of the THREE of us tomorrow!!!!!

Last days....

We were talking tonight about how crazy it is that these are the last days of it being just "us" in the house. Not that we won't have alone time, not that we won't have times where Emmitt stays with Grandparents, relatives, and other friends...but it's the last time where we are just responsible for taking care of each other. That's crazy. We've had a great first 4 years of marriage, and this is going to start a great next journey of life for us. Committed to not losing the fire....growing more in love with each other throughout all of this. Not letting children become our idols....but just welcoming them into the family.

Not even sure how it will all look or what it all means. We just know that we love each other more than anything and don't want our kids to ever take the place of that love, or even worse, potentially damage that love. Seems like that happens to so many people.

Not us.

We love Emmitt so much already, but it'll always be a different kind of love.

Waiting

Britt and I figured this would be good for all our friends and family spread out around the states....especially since I've abandoned the Life-Waster known as Facebook. So I put this little blog together real quick for us to update with stuff about our family and our newest addition to the family, Emmitt Adrion Kinder. He isn't here yet, but he will be any day.

Britt's asleep right now, I'm not. That's normally the case.

We're just waiting for the pain. She's feelin great....everything is ready.....hurry up and get here little guy!