Mayhem - complete and total Mayhem.

As most of you are aware - both Scarlett and Holden's birthdays are in May....only 5 days apart. Needless to say, this month has been nuts. And on top of everything else, we moved. But that's for a different post. Holden turned one on May 13th. Here he is in all of his one-year-old glory. He still likes to eat wrapping paper...

but, more importantly, he likes to eat cake too.
All done!Joe and I got him a ride on trike...which he loves and which we promptly took away from him so we could pack it. (We're horrible parents.) Scarlett turned 3 on May 18th. We picked her up at daycare and she was rockin' a paper crown that her teachers made for her. She had worn it all day and it was torn to almost shreds by the time we got there and I used an entire roll of Scotch Tape to repair it once we got home. (How could I not?) Nan got Scarlett a doll named Sophie and she was so incredibly proud of it. Can you tell?

And Scarlett got pink princess "cupcapes" with candy hearts.
In between their two actual birthdays, we threw a joint party for the kids at a local playgym. Initially, I was hesitant, but it couldn't have gone any better or been any less stressful. The babies had fun. The preschoolers had fun. And Scarlett and Holden don't even require therapy because they didn't get their own parties...well, they don't require therapy yet. Here are the kids getting ready to leave for their party.

There were playhouses there.And ride-on toys.And roller-coasters.And cheese doodles. There were swingsets.and the swingsets had slides.
and some of those slides went into ball pits. There was a bouncy castle.And a treasure hunt. Look at all those Stork Club attendees sitting cross-legged like circle time. They took direction on how to find the clues.Which they promptly searched for,promptly found,and they scored some pretty sweet treasure. There was pizza. And cake.

And lots of cute babies that would stay still long enough for me to get a picture of them...like Gio (Holden's best bud).
And Avery (Holden and Avery go way back...like 10.5 months back). And Miss Gwen...(the future Mrs. Holden Adams). Yay birthdays! Yay birthday party! Yay it's done. Whew.

His big day...

To my Holden,

The second we even contemplated wanting you, you made your presence known. It was as if you were always meant to be with us…waiting patiently for the exact moment we decided we were ready for you, and then – you made your appearance. We crossed our fingers that you would be a boy, and a boy you most definitely are. Your father and I were in shock when we found out – “Are we that lucky? I don’t remember being lucky before…not lucky like this.” And, in fact, that lucky feeling hasn’t let up. Not one bit.

On May 13, 2009 at 5:36 am – you were born.

From start to finish, you rushed into this world in a short 3 ½ hours…oh ye of little patience. Your father and I frantically rushed to the hospital, my doctors frantically rushed to the hospital, and you, my little man, were born as mellow as can be 30 minutes later. I held you first. In fact, I held you for a long time. Because of your rush, the nurses still had to finish the admitting paperwork and your father had to run outside to get the camera and the suitcase and to move the car that we had just abandoned on the side of the road – and so the first 20 minutes of your life were spent in my arms. (And my heart aches to get just ONE of those 20 minutes back.)

Having gone through all the “firsts” before with your sister – all the first smiles, giggles and hugs, I was initially concerned that your firsts would be shadowed – but I was wrong. Instead, your firsts took on a new meaning. Instead of rushing you from milestone to milestone, I wanted to enjoy every second of baby you. Your sister’s first smile swiftly became her first giggle and then first hug; while that’s special too, it’s special in a different way. Your first smile was scooped up and cherished – knowing full well that yours would be the LAST first smile for your father and me.

"The first child got me shiny new, like a new pair of shoes, but he got blisters, too. The second child got me worn, yes, but comfortable." - Anna Quindlen

Happy first birthday, Holden. You made the whole package complete.

World...meet Holden

So. We've been mia for a few days. We've been a bit busy. Why? World...meet Holden Joseph. He was born on Wednesday, 5/13/2009 at 5:36 am. He weighed 9.2 lbs. He was 20.5" long. And whew...what a story. Wanna hear it? Good.

I started noticing some decent contractions at 2 am on the 13th. They were decent enough to get me to wake up Joe and ask him to get dressed. I called my midwife. My wonderful, glorious midwife (sense sarcasm?). I told her that my contractions were pretty serious and coming about every 3 minutes...but that they were only about 30 seconds long. Her response was that those were not real contractions - they were too short, and I was probably just feeling the baby settling down and getting ready. I should come into the office at 7:30 the next morning for a check up. Oh man, was she wrong.

I hung out at home until about 4 am when I decided something wasn't right. I had Joe call my sister to come stay at our house with sleeping Scarlett. She got there about 4:15 am. We left for the hospital at about 4:45 am and the whole time I'm thinking - man. I HAVE to be in labor. I hope my midwife isn't mad that I'm not listening to her and going to the hospital anyway. Then, about 3 blocks away from the hospital, my water broke in the car...and wow. Things started happening pretty quickly from that point on. The pain quickly escalated. We got to the hospital at 5:05 am and my midwife and Dr. weren't even there. The hospital staff checked me out. I was 8 cm dilated. No drugs for me. No epidural. No IV with painkillers. No nothin'. There was no time. My Dr. and midwife barely made it to the hospital. I was pushing about 10 minutes later and after about 9 pushes, Holden was born. That's right folks...we checked into the hospital at 5:05 am and a short 31 minutes later we had a baby. I was only in labor for about 3 1/2 hours. It was absolutely insane. And Holden is absolutely wonderful. And we are absolutely exhausted. I'm leaving you for now with these few pictures. I promise there will be tons more later.