Who managed, in three days time, to be potty trained — while her little brother was loosing his breakfast, lunch and dinner, her mommy and daddy were worried out of their minds and the household was a mess of stress.

YOU ROCK!

And your mama loves you.

Right down to your toes!

After two weeks of projectile vomit, mounds of laundry,  three trips to the pediatrician, a visit to the ER, a life saving surgery and 48 hours in the hospital —

WE. ARE. HOME.

As I type my baby boy is sleeping on my chest. I just kissed his little head. I am so happy – there aren’t words.

On Monday morning, when I handed Ellis to his daddy, free from tubes and beeping medical thingers….

he cried.

This is the second time in the ten years that I have known Jan that I have seen him cry.

“I am just feeling so emotional. People have been so good to us.” are the words that tumbled out of him as he held his baby boy.

They were! (perhaps you are are one of the people who was so kind to us)

We are feeling so much gratitude.

Thank you to all of our friends and family for your prayers, your words of encouragement, your concern. Thank you for helping us with the girls as we were in the hospital with Ellis. Thank you to the brilliant surgeon who saved our little baby and to all the doctors and nurses who cared for him. Thank you to God for giving us our baby boy twice.

Once on the day he was born.

And again on the day the surgery was a success.

We love this kid!

More than we know how to express!!

Six weeks ago today Ellis was born. The day after his birthday was Mother’s Day.

On his six week birthday, which we celebrated today,  we were back in the hospital – in the ER – and tomorrow, on Father’s Day he will have a surgery to correct a condition that he has called pyloric stenosis. I’m too tired to tell you about it, but if you google it, you can learn all about it.

Jan is spending the night with our little guy in the hospital. I had planned to make Jan a special Father’s Day dinner — and a special cake – a chocolate flour-less job. The kids I and were out earlier in the week buying him gifts. I had planned to wrap the presents we got him with a beautiful bow, and let him sleep in. Instead he will spend his Father’s Day ON DUTY  and if he is lucky he will get a few hours of sleep tonight.

I just wanted to honor the good man who is the father of the little boy who I love, the little boy who will be sleeping in his father’s arms tonight.

When I married Jan I really wanted my babies to look like him.  He was handsome, strong, successful and I was in love with him. HIM, HIM, HIM. He was all mine. Now I share him with three other little people. I feel that the four of us (me, Millie, Clara and Ellis) are some of the luckiest shmos on the planet earth. I had no idea the kind of husband and father I would be getting when I married him. I just knew I loved him. But boy, did I get me a winner.

The man is rock solid. I count on him for EVERYTHING.

I want him to know how much I love being on his team. Today when I was in the hospital with Ellis and Jan was taking care of the girls, the resident surgeon came in to have me sign a consent form. I was a bit unsure what to do regarding one of the issues they talked to me about so I called Jan. There was my rock – he knew the answer and knew just what to do.

I just trust him with my whole heart. He is competent, committed, helpful, loving, hard working and 100% tuned into me and our kids.

I love him more than I can say.

And I love our little boy.

The blessed little boy who, will spend the night in his father’s strong arms.

Happy Father’s day to one of the world’s finest fathers!

Millie’s new passion/obsession is writing and illustrating books. She is also hard at work on her “Bird Guide”, more on that later. I know I am her mom, but I have got to say that some of her books are truly inspired.

I wish I had some gumption, if I did I would scan some of the books and then put them on the blog.

No gumption today.

But her dad has some. He managed to capture her sketching-it-up the other day.

(How about Millie and Clara’s night gowns? Their dear old dad – the one with gumption – brought those back from his last trip to London. It makes me happy to see them together in their matching nighties. They look like they could be General Stanley’s daughters.)

See what I mean –

Front: darling

Back: darling

Again, that was,

Front: darling

Back: darling

…the pure sweetness and cuteness of a new born baby.

Do you know what I am talking about?

Maybe when one is so fresh from the heavenly realms that heavenly spark they bring to earth just cannot be captured on film.

It must be experienced in person.

Every picture we take I think, “close, but no cigar!”

His wide-eyed expression. The magical look of him drinking the world in. The delight in his eyes.

Un-capture-able!

If you are a praying person – would you spare a prayer for our boy?  He has been projectile vomiting for the last week. We are taking him to a specialist to see if we can work out this issue. I was up until 3:00 AM with him last night as he vomited gallons of his mother’s fabulous milk (ahem) all over the place. It is lucky that blogs don’t smell. Cuz it is stinky around here…including ME.

Two little Dawson girls in a tree!

I would want to be reincarnated as a Studium tile from the Silk Road Mosaic Collection, to be specific.

I would even be content to come back as a border!

If I ever re-do a kitchen or a bathroom you can be sure to see one of these tiles (or more likely borders – they are cheaper!) make a proud appearance in Chez Dawson…

Sigh!

Somehow I talked Millie into waiting until August to celebrate her birthday with her cousins and aunts and uncles. (Stay tuned for a birthday post at BYU bowling alley, you heard me, we are going to bowl it up for Mill’s b-day, suckaz!)

She did have her grand parents in town, a surprise visit from Eno, Alli and Eli, and her friends Jack, Drew and Hudson – who haven’t seen a party in years but STILL bring presents (these friends are KEEPERS!), lots of presents from mom and dad AND a pancake breakfast on the 17th.

So, I think she is covered until August.

Here is to a swell 6th!

If someone were to ask me to describe pregnancy I think I would liken it to be beaten with a blunt object for nine months. I don’t have a fun time being pregnant. But what is remarkable to me is that when it is over, it is over, as in g-o-n-e. All the hard times swept away by the wonder of a newly born human being.

We made it to the other side. And on the other side of nine very long months came our baby boy,

Ellis Kai Dawson

Stats:

Born May 7th at 9:55am, 8 lbs, 20 inches

Blue eyes, strawberry blond hair

Now 90th % for weight and height

TOTALLY 100 % AWESOME!

A few months ago I started reading Georgette Heyer novels. (They kept me sane during the months and months of insomnia which accompanied this pregnancy.) Heyer owns the Regency novel – she wrote 20 of them (I’ve read 10 of them to date) and a “Nonesuch” is a man who is a paragon among men. That’s what I think of my baby boy. This kid is a dream.

Eats like a champ, zero colic, great snuggler, good-natured, strong (he was trying to hold his head up on the first day of life!), he is constantly cooing — which melts my mommy heart — and we are simply in love with him.

His dad and sisters are smitten.

Smitten, I tell you!

He is a keeper!