Levi's Due Date

This is Levi on his due date, August 25th.  The next day at the doctor, he weighed 9 lbs, 1 oz.  This little chubber-doo gained 1 lb, 10 oz in 10 days.  No wonder it felt like all he was doing was eating...apparently he was.  As previously predicted, he is quickly catching up to his sister and becoming the chunky monkey baby we are used to having around here.  Let me just say again that this momma is glad he decided to make an early entrance into the world.

Here are some other pictures from the last week...

This is how Izzie holds him.  And he loves it, no joke.  He was fussy and
crying and she held out her arms and said, "Here, Mommy.  Give him to me."
I was 100% sure that it would not work but didn't want to break her heart,
so I passed him over.  And he quit crying.  Instantly.  When she talks to him
he goes still and he gets quiet, his eyes focused so you can tell he's really
listening.  This doesn't happen when I talk.  Already he is tuning me out!

Just like Izzie, this darling has inherited my open-mouthed sleep face.
My apologies, dearies.

This happened, which immediately reminded me of a similar moment 2.5 years ago...

...baby Isabel and Caden doing the exact same thing.  So sweet.

Little man made his debut at church at just under 2 weeks old...

...complete with killer shoes.  Thanks, Auntie Heidi.

Levi visited Great-Grandpa for the first time... 

...and Miss Isabel decided to look seven years old.  Sheesh!

Bryan ran into the store and came out to this.  He laughed
and said, "A girl after her mother's heart."  She wanted to
look at the "princesses in their dresses".  We won't be
making this a habit, but it was pretty funny.

Levi had his first football watching party with Daddy.

The whole crew went on a Labor Day walk to HyVee...

...for some delicious and nutritious donuts (Squeaks not included, of course).

At Home with Levi

We are counting ourselves incredibly blessed that so far baby brother is turning out to be just as good of an eater and a sleeper as his big sister was.  It's still early, we know, but he loves to eat and sleeps up to four hour stints at night already.  He's a champ.  And even if it changes now, we've had a good run!  Don't get me wrong--he cries when he's hungry and when he poops, but as I recall that is pretty typical for a baby...

Levi is very patient with big sister and her "help" with him, although right now he doesn't really have a choice.  We'll see what happens when he can fight back.  She likes to feed him (for about 13 seconds) and hold him, but her favorite thing to do (surprise!) is read him stories.  Isabel has read more books to him than I have.

Her shirt says "Most Awesome Sister"

Yes.  We definitely all wanted to put on paper hats.  Can you tell?

Check out the stacks of books she had going.  They camped out there for awhile.
Note the pink bouncer--this is what happens when you have a big sister.

First dinner at home

The next day was Izzie's first day of school.
She insisted on wearing the same outfit!

This is the face we see MOST of the time.  This kid does nothing but sleep.

Occasionally, we get to confirm that he does indeed have eyeballs.

Big sister wants to help with everything.  But she cries when he cries.  So
this bath was a big, dramatic tear fest.  I'm not sure he even got clean.

Morning snuggles before the doctor.

4 days old already!

He is way behind Izzie in the stats department--she was 90th percentile for everything--but he started two weeks behind.  I'm sure he'll catch up!  It's hard to believe we could love another little one as much as we do, but we are all smitten.

She wanted a picture of them together.  I'm sure we won't have enough of those.

Rahn Family, Party of 4 (Part 2)

I just thought we might need some more pics.  This little one is the sweetest, sweetest baby in the world.  He seems so tiny compared to our chunky (and big-headed) baby Izzie!  He's happiest when he is snuggled up as tight as he can be.  And I just love that I ended up with a blonde baby.  It's hard to tell sometimes because it gets greasy quickly from all the petting we do, but when it's clean and fresh it is fluffy and blonde.  Yum yum.  He has deliciously wrinkly legs and pouty lips.  And his skin is so soft you can barely feel it--it's like angel wings.  Very kissable little man, indeed.

Second outfit after the first poop in the hospital

Snuggly boys

Can you blame me?

A going home outfit

Rahn Family, Party of 4

Our darling baby boy joined our family 2 weeks early, much to the delight of his tired Mommy and excited Daddy.

Levi Joseph Rahn

August 11, 2014

7 lbs, 10 oz

20.25 inches

My water broke at 3:15 am (also, coincidentally when our girl woke up screaming in the night--was it a premonition on her part?!) and we got to the hospital around 4:30 am.  Everything went pretty quickly, and baby boy made it into the world in time for Mommy to have lunch.  I was very grateful for this since I went over 24 hours without eating when I had Iz--not okay!  :)  He screamed for the first hour of his life, and refused to open his eyes.  He was a scowly little gorilla from the get go!  He is very serious and has very intense forehead wrinkles already from all the thinking he does.  I think he looks much more like Daddy than his sister ever did, but there are still glimpses of our baby Isabel in him as well.  We'll keep him.

We moved from room 412 where he was born to room 614.  We camped out there for the next few days.  He ate and slept well from the beginning.  And although he had a very noisy start, he changed his tune quickly.  After the first night I dubbed him "Squeaks" and the nickname has stuck since.  He doesn't so much cry or scream as, well... squeak.  This works out well since his crying really upsets big sister.  But if we call it squeaking, it stresses her out much less and she can laugh instead of joining him in his sadness.

His actual name (which Iz pronounces "Le-i"--who needs the "v"?) is one I have been in love with since before Bryan, and Joseph is after Bryan's great-grandfather whom he loved dearly and has very fond memories of.  I called Iz to let her know that her brother was born and told him his name.  "Oh, that's a good name, Mommy!" she said, and then proceeded to talk for the next five minutes straight about everything she'd been doing with Uncle J, Caden and Avery.  She handled everything so well for a 2 year old--we were so proud of her.  My mom was with her in the morning when she woke up, and asked her if she knew why Grammy was there.  "Because my brother's coming today!" she said.  She was so excited to come meet him and hold him and love on him, and then maybe even more excited to spend the night at Grammy and Popper's house.  She spent the next day with Nana and was a little emotional by the second night of not being with us, but a night with the Meyers distracted her right out of her troubles!  We picked her up and and headed home with brother around noon on Wednesday.  We love being a family of four.

On our way to the hospital so Grammy's on Izzie duty.
No idea why I have sunglasses at 4 am--over prepared?

Sweet boy

Just after he was born.  He finally quit crying once he had a hat on.

Ready to meet his adoring fans!

Scowly Little Gorilla.  I told you so.

First bottle.  He loved it.

His toes are incredibly long.  They look like talons.

"Oh, the unfairness of life!"

Big sis's pic was there so she would know we were thinking of her
even when she wasn't with us.  (Well, her dad and I anyways...)

So excited!

Doubly blessed

My favorite picture
 

Avie and Izzie

When cousin Avery was first born, the 9 month difference between her and Izzie was enough that they didn't interact much.  An infant and a walking toddler have little in common--and more often than not Izzie, though well-intentioned, was just a little too intense for baby Avery.  As baby Avery got older and could sit up and pay attention to the world around her, she really enjoyed watching Izzie and Caden play, but still kept her distance.  Slowly but surely, the developmental gap between the two girls has been narrowing, and they are starting to have a blast together.  Avery still doesn't talk much, but she can keep up with Isabel and all her activities just the same--she just grunts and yells while she does it.  This summer they have been in the same class at school, and it's been really fun to know they're having some alone time together every week.  And every day Tuesday and Thursday when I pick Izzie up, I get a full report of what "Avery Meyer" did that day (there are two Averys so Iz has to distinguish between them).  One day they walked to the Sunken Gardens and Izzie reported, "Avery Meyer fell and bumped her head and cried for her mommy and she wouldn't hold my hand and she got in the water and caught a fish."  Guessing 25% of that story was true...  But watch out -- I sense besties in the very near future!

(These girls are just convincing Caden more and more that it is time baby boy came.  He is ready for some more testosterone!  The five year gap may present some issues, but CW is really excited nonetheless.)

A sleepy morning at T's house

Lost in Fun

Frozen movie night

Big girls!

Our days of matching outfits might be dwindling--both are starting to have
opinions about what they wear--but we still love to do it!

And then sometimes they choose to match on their own!

Love Isabel's FILTHY face.  It is absolutely always a dirt magnet.  But I
love Avery's giggling face even more.  (Iz was reading her a bedtime story.)

They both look irritated, yes?

Double Trouble

Fun times with T!

Pajama day at school